The pursuit of sexual freedom and its political, philosophical and practical implications are the themes of this wide-ranging new study of seventeenth-century literature. The author examines the writers of the later seventeenth century in their historical context, and focuses particularly on what happens when women, as well as men, desire sexual freedom. In a study of the writings of the Earl of Rochester, notorious for their sexual candor, and of Aphra Behn, most controversial woman of her day, the author explores the tensions inherent in the ideology of individual liberty in the conduct of...

The pursuit of sexual freedom and its political, philosophical and practical implications are the themes of this wide-ranging new study of seventeenth-century literature. The author examines the writers of the later seventeenth century in their historical context, and focuses particularly on what happens when women, as well as men, desire sexual freedom. In a study of the writings of the Earl of Rochester, notorious for their sexual candor, and of Aphra Behn, most controversial woman of her day, the author explores the tensions inherent in the ideology of individual liberty in the conduct of...

When Cleopatra expresses a desire to die 'after the high Roman fashion', acting in accordance with 'what's brave, what's noble', Shakespeare is suggesting that there are certain values that are characteristically Roman. The use of the terms 'Rome' and 'Roman' in Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra, or Jonson's Sejanus often carry the implication that most people fail to live up to this ideal of conduct, that very few Romans are worthy of the name. Chernaik demonstrates how, in these plays, Roman values are held up to critical scrutiny. The plays of Shakespeare, Jonson, Massinger and Chapman...

When Cleopatra expresses a desire to die 'after the high Roman fashion', acting in accordance with 'what's brave, what's noble', Shakespeare is suggesting that there are certain values that are characteristically Roman. The use of the terms 'Rome' and 'Roman' in Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra, or Jonson's Sejanus often carry the implication that most people fail to live up to this ideal of conduct, that very few Romans are worthy of the name. Chernaik demonstrates how, in these plays, Roman values are held up to critical scrutiny. The plays of Shakespeare, Jonson, Massinger and Chapman...

Modernist Writers and the Marketplace is a new research-level collection devoted to an exciting area in the history of the book. Focusing on Henry James, W.B. Yeats, Joseph Conrad, D.H. Lawrence, Virginia Woolf, T.S. Eliot, James Joyce, Ezra Pound, Wyndham Lewis and the culture of the little magazine of the period, eleven contributors from six countries demonstrate new developments in the sociology of texts, the practice of literary biography, and textual criticism.