Guy of Warwick and Other Chapbook Romances Six Tales from the Popular Literature of Pre-Industrial England

Chapbooks formed the staple reading matter of ordinary people during the eighteenth and much of the nineteenth centuries; they were also read by children of the gentry. They included fiction, almanacs, religious guidance and radical political tracts, and were available throughout the British Isles and in colonial America. The six chapbook romances in this volume all derive from tales of chivalric adventure and courtly love which were current in the Middle Ages or the Renaissance. They provide a fascinating window on the mental world of rural England and America before the advent of mass media. No previous attempt has been made to produce the full text of a selection of chapbooks for the modern reader; they have remained the province of specialist bibliographers and antiquarians.

John Simons is Head of the School of Humanities and Arts, Edge Hill College of Higher Education.