Literary Culture in Jacobean England Reading 1621

This book offers an unparalleled depth of historical research by surveying the extraordinary richness of literary culture in a single year. Paul Salzman examines what is written, published, performed and, in some cases, even spoken during 1621 in Britain. Well-known works by writers such as Donne, Burton, Middleton, and Ralegh, are examined alongside hitherto unknown works in a huge variety of genres: plays, poems, romances, advice books, sermons, histories, parliamentary speeches, royal proclamations. This is a work of literary history that greatly enhances knowledge of what it was like to read, write, and listen in early modern Britain.

Paul Salzman is Senior Lecturer in English at La Trobe University, Australia.