Matthew Arnold's Culture and Anarchy (1869), is one of the most celebrated works of social criticism ever written. It has become a reference point for all subsequent discussion of the relations between politics and culture. This edition establishes the authoritative text of this much-revised work, and places it alongside Arnold's three most important essays on political subjects. The introduction sets these works in the context of nineteenth-century intellectual and political history. This edition also contains a chronology of Arnold's life, a bibliographical guide and full notes on the names...

Included in this edition are several poems to give a proper introduction and conclusion to Comus, and to reveal the element of unity and growth. The notes furnish biographical, historical, and critical material to give an insight into the forces which went to form the mind and art of the great poet. This volume also includes the most significant of the many estimates of Milton's greatness, including Matthew Arnold's address at the unveiling of the Milton Memorial Window in St. Margaret's Church, Westminster.