British Literature 1640-1789 (eBook)

Robert DeMaria, Jr is the Henry Noble MacCracken Professor of English Literature at Vassar College, USA. He is the General Editor of the Yale edition of the Works of Samuel Johnson, and editor of the Johnsonian News Letter. He is the author of numerous books including The Life of Samuel Johnson (Wiley Blackwell, 1993), and Samuel Johnson and the Life of Reading (1997); and is the editor of British Literature 1640-1789: A Critical Reader (1998), Classical Literature and Its Reception: An Anthology (with Robert D. Brown, 2007), and A Companion to British Literature in four volumes (with Heesok Chang and Samantha Zacher, 2014), all published by Wiley Blackwell.

"This commitment to the restoration of many overlooked and sidelined writers makes it an essential intervention, and a valuable contribution to the changing face of eighteenth-century literary studies. On this front, it is to be hoped that editors of future anthologies follow DeMaria's example." -- The Year's Work in English Studies, Volume 98 (2019)

"This is a magisterial anthology, skilfully selected and rigorously edited by Robert DeMaria, with crisp, authoritative explanatory material. The fourth edition of British Literature 1640-1789 retains the exciting openness of earlier editions to voices from the margins while intensifying its focus on the major authors and works as we teach them today." Thomas Keymer, University of Toronto

"Already the gold standard for this period, British Literature 1640-1789 keeps getting better. The range and inclusiveness of genres and authors is remarkable and inventive - no instructor will be at a loss for the canon or the non-canonical. In fact, this anthology helps reshape the canon. No such collection can ever be perfect, but this one comes as close to perfection as the form allows. Headnotes are superb and succinct, the layout and design eminently inviting to the eye." James Engell, Harvard University