
Jonson's Magic Houses
Essays in Interpretation
Ian Donaldson(Author)
Oxford University Press
Published on 13. February 1997
Book
Hardback
252 pages
978-0-19-818394-5 (ISBN)
Description
Ben Jonson was commonly regarded during his lifetime and the century following his death as a writer whose powers were equal, if not superior, to those of Shakespeare. By the middle of the eighteenth century, however, his reputation had sharply declined: while Shakespeare was increasingly venerated as a type of original genius, Jonson was contrastingly seen as a writer of patchy and derivative talents, excessively devoted to the authors of antiquity and to the social minutiae of his age, anxiously resentful of his great and 'gentle' rival. This popular, formalized contrast of the two men's characters and abilities profoundly affected the subsequent reputations of both Shakespeare and Jonson. In this new collection of biographical, critical and historical essays, Ian Donaldson challenges many long-held and recent assumptions about the nature of Jonson's personality and creative achievement, offering fresh readings of his life and art.
Reviews / Votes
Jonson's Magic Houses is more unified and successful than most collections of its sort ... The book makes a needed statement about Jonson, perhaps the most undervalued of the major authors of his time. It also offers a cogent brief for a cautionary approach to issues of topicality and biography relating to the early modern era. Elegantly written and gracefully argued, Donaldson's essays bode well for his forthcoming biography of Jonson. * Douglas Bruster, University of Texas, Austin, Renaissance Quarterly *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 222 mm
Width: 145 mm
Thickness: 18 mm
Weight
491 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-818394-5 (9780198183945)
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Schweitzer Classification
Person
Author
Grace I Professor of English Literature at Cambridge University; and FellowGrace I Professor of English Literature at Cambridge University; and Fellow, King's College, Cambridge