Books in the Cambridge English Prose Texts series

By the end of the nineteenth century the novel unquestionably had become the most popular and influential of English literary forms. Yet it has not always been clear how the Victorians themselves regarded the nature of prose fiction. This volume is a collection of twelve 'landmark' essays that chart the development of English theories of fiction during the great age of the novel.

This edition brings together for the first time key writings of medieval English mystics. The texts have been newly edited, and supplemented with notes and a glossary. In addition, extracts from contemporary translations illustrate the reception of European mystical texts in later medieval England.

In the introductory essay to this collection of readings, the editors review the principles of the early economists, the way in which these principles were appropriated and applied by their Victorian successors and the contrasting modes which critics of popular economic ideas assumed.

This is the only available collection of biblical criticism from this period. The process whereby the 'Holy Scriptures' became the object of human critique independent of church control, is illustrated in the present volume with excerpts from such famous critics as Coleridge, Bake and Matthew Arnold, as well as Collins and Deist and Bishop Sherlock.

Cambridge English Prose Texts are devoted to selections of non-fictional English prose of the late sixteenth to the mid seventeenth centuries. This volume centres on the great Revolution debate of the 1790s, inspired by the French Revolution. The debate consists of a series of works which depend for their meaning on one another, and upon the historical situation which gave them birth.

This book is devoted to the writings of the Evangelical and Oxford movements, whose leading members were key figures in the religious debate that so preoccupied early Victorian society. It will prove to be an indispensable tool for all serious students of nineteenth-century literature, history and theology.

This anthology documents the effect of Bacon's ideas in the remarkably fruitful period following 1660. It includes his sketch of a scientific research institute in the New Atlantis (1627), which inspired the founding of the Royal Society in 1662, as acknowledged by Thomas Sprat in its History, excerpted here.

Mary Ann Radzinowicz's volume comprises texts from the American colonial period, which bear witness to the extraordinary diversity of writing at this time. All the texts are permeated by a strong historical consciousness. This volume will be indispensable reading for students of American literature and history.

This edition brings together for the first time key writings of medieval English mystics. The texts have been newly edited, and supplemented with notes and a glossary. In addition, extracts from contemporary translations illustrate the reception of European mystical texts in later medieval England.

This volume is concerned with radical prose from the period 1642-60 and comprises political pamphlets covering the years of the Civil War and the Commonwealth. All the pamphlets are revolutionary in varying degrees. This book will prove to be an indispensable tool for all serious students of seventeenth-century literature, history and political theory.