Romancing Treason

Romancing Treason examines English literature written during the Wars of the Roses. Focusing on the the theme of treason, Megan Leitch suggests that the idea of a literature of the Wars of the Roses offers a way of understanding an understudied period.

Set against the framework of modern political concerns, Treason: Medieval and Early Modern Adultery, Betrayal, and Shame considers the various forms of treachery in a variety of sources, including literature, historical chronicles, and material culture creating a complex portrait of the development of this high crime.

"This collection of original essays examines the publication and reception history of sixteenth-century Iberian books of chivalry in English translation and explores the impact of that literary corpus on Elizabethan culture as well as its connections with other contemporary genres such as native English fiction, chronicle, and epistolary writing. The essays focus mainly on Anthony Munday's work as the leading translator as well as the two main Spanish sixteenth-century cycles-Le., Amadis and Palmerin-from a variety of critical approaches, including cultural studies, book history and reception, material history, translation, post-colonial criticism, and early modern Qender studies."--

This book offers a much-needed consideration of Melusine within medieval and contemporary theories of space, memory, and gender. The Middle English Melusine offers a particularly rich source for such a study, as it presents the story of a powerful fairy/human woman who desires a full human life—and death—within a literary tradition that is more friendly to women’s agency than its continental counterparts. After establishing a “textual habitus of wonder,” Jan Shaw explores the tale in relation to a range of Middle English traditions including love and marriage, the spatial practices of women, the operation of individual and collective memory, and the legacies of patrimony. Melusine emerges as a complex figure, representing a multifaceted feminine subject that furthers our understanding of Middle English women’s sense of self in the world.

Essays; medieval romance; Arthurian Iiterature; Elizabeth Archibald.

Munday's translation is based on a Spanish original entitled Primaleon de Grecia I (Salamanca, 1512). This Spanish romance, the second book in the Palmerin cycle, soon became a best-seller in the Spanish market, with several editions published between 1512 and 1588. The work was also translated into many continental languages. Anthony Munday translated his Palmendos from the French version by Francois de Vernassal late in 1588. The Historie of Palmendos comprised the first thirty-two chapters of the French text and focused on the adventures of Palmendos on his journey to Constantinople. It was reprinted in 1653 and 1663 with slight alterations from the 1589 version. This is an original-spelling edition that produces a most reliable text, as close as possible to the author's original manuscript.

An enchanting, lyrical novel from the acclaimed author of The Light Between Worlds. When her father is convicted of treason, Violet is exiled from her beloved ancestral home, Burleigh House. One of the six great estates of England, its magic once kept her well - enchantment in its bricks and mortar providing secret hiding places, even lighting fires on the coldest nights. However, on her return Violet discovers that the place has gone wild with grief. Vines and briars are crumbling the walls. Magic that once fed the land has turned dark and deadly, twisting blooms into thorns, poisoning livestock and destroying crops. Now Violet must decide if her destiny is set in stone, and how far she will go to save Burleigh - before it destroys everything ... including the boy she loves.

New and fresh assessments of Malory's Morte Darthur.