This study of William Cowper spans his early life and writings to his last years. It includes chapters on his moral satires and light verse as well as on "The Task" and the Homer translations. It also contains a selection of his poetic work.

This is an impressive and lucid survey of eighteenth-century intellectual life. It reflects on some of the dominant themes of the period, arguing against such labels as 'Augustan Age', 'Age of Enlightenment' and ' Age of Reason', which have been attached to the eighteenth-century by critics and historians.

This is an impressive and lucid survey of eighteenth-century intellectual life, providing a real sense of the complexity of the age and of the cultural and intellectual climate in which imaginative literature flourished. It reflects on some of the dominant themes of the period, arguing against such labels as 'Augustan Age', 'Age of Enlightenment' and 'Age of Reason', which have been attached to the eighteenth-century by critics and historians.

Having previously suffered neglect as a result of Pope's dominance of the period, William Cowper (1731-1800) has now become a far more important figure in eighteenth-century literature. Following the successful format of the series, Professor Sambrook's edition consists of a comprehensive, contextual editor's introduction together with substantial annotation on the page. The Task (1785) is the principal text discussed together with a selection of Cowper's other poems which cover a wide range of his subjects, moods and styles.