{"title":"Renaissance Literary Criticism","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"a-str_ubd_h0000w8i","title":"From Dawn to Decadence: 1500 to the Present: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life","description":"\u003cp\u003e\"A stunning five-century study of civilization's cultural retreat.\" — William Safire, New York Times\u003cbr\u003e\nHighly regarded here and abroad for some thirty works of cultural history and criticism, master historian Jacques Barzun has set down in one continuous narrative the sum of his discoveries and conclusions about the whole of Western culture since 1500.\u003cbr\u003e\nBarzun describes what Western Man wrought from the Renaissance and Reformation down to the present in the double light of its own time and our pressing concerns. He introduces characters and incidents with his unusual literary style and grace, bringing to the fore those that have been forgotten or obscured. His compelling chapters—such as \"Puritans as Democrats,\" \"The Monarchs' Revolution,\" and \"The Artist Prophet and Jester\"—show the recurrent role of great themes throughout the era.\u003cbr\u003e\nThe triumphs and defeats of five hundred years form an inspiring saga that modifies the current impression of one long tale of oppression by white European males. Women and their deeds are prominent, and freedom (even in sexual matters) is not an invention of the last decades. And when Barzun rates the present not as a culmination but a decline, he is in no way a prophet of doom. Instead, he shows decadence as the normal close of great periods and a necessary condition of the creative novelty that will burst forth—tomorrow or the next day.\u003cbr\u003e\nOnly after a lifetime of separate studies covering a broad territory could a writer create with such ease the synthesis displayed in this magnificent volume., ISBN13: 9780060175863 ISBN10: 0060175869 Material Type: hardcover\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"CheapBookDepot","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46124727632035,"sku":"A-STR_UBD_H0000W8I","price":11.03,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0607\/9227\/5107\/files\/81TBEADH_OL.jpg?v=1754821210"},{"product_id":"boswells-presumptuous-task-the-making-of-the-life-of-dr-johnson","title":"Boswell's Presumptuous Task: The Making of the Life of Dr. Johnson","description":"\u003cp\u003eA heroic, brilliantly detailed portrait of the biographer as artist.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eJames Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson is the most celebrated of all biographies, acknowledged as one of the greatest and most entertaining books in the English language. Yet Boswell himself was regarded by his contemporaries as a man of no judgment and condemned by posterity as a lecher and a drunk. How could such a fool have written such a book?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBoswell's \"presumptuous task\" was his biography of Johnson. Adam Sisman traces the friendship between Boswell and his great mentor, one of the most unlikely pairings in literature, and provides a fascinating and original account of Boswell's seven-year struggle to write the Life following Johnson's death in 1784. At the time, Boswell was trying -- and failing -- to make his mark in the world: desperate for money; debilitated by drink; torn between his duties at home and the lure of London; tormented by rival biographers; often embarrassed, humiliated and depressed. Boswell's Presumptuous Task shows movingly how a man who failed in almost everything else produced a masterpiece., ISBN13: 9780374115616 ISBN10: 0374115613 Material Type: hardcover\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"CheapBookDepot","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46126378156195,"sku":"A_H0000COU","price":13.5,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0607\/9227\/5107\/files\/81TP_N63udS.jpg?v=1754887712"},{"product_id":"the-complete-english-poems-penguin-classics","title":"The Complete English Poems (Penguin Classics)","description":"\u003cp\u003e'The first poet in the world in some things', is how John Donne was described by his contemporary Ben Jonson.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eYet it is only this century that Donne has been indisputably established as a great poet—and even, many feel, the greatest love poet of them all. Jonson went on to remark that 'That Donne, for not keeping of an accent, deserved hanging', yet Donne's rhythms, once thought 'unmusical' are now recognized as the natural rhythms of the speaking voice; his 'eccentricity' as a complex self-doubt; his 'obscurity' the reflection of a brilliantly learned and allusive mind. Poets such as Eliot and Empson have found Donne's poetry profoundly attuned to our modern age, while Yeats' glowing comment will always be true: 'the intricacy and subtlety of his imagination are the length and depth of the furrow made by his passion.'\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThis volume, superbly edited by Professor Smith, is the first complete edition to make a serious attempt to guide the reader closely through the complexities of Donne's poetry. Considerable attention has been paid to the text, and a selection of the important manuscript variants are included. This edition is also the first to make use of the newly discovered manuscript of the verse letter to Lady Carey and Mistress Essex Rich.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFor more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators., ISBN13: 9780140422092 ISBN10: 0140422099 Material Type: paperback\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"CheapBookDepot","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46126630109347,"sku":"A-STR_UBD_H0000OJR","price":12.37,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0607\/9227\/5107\/files\/61BGKM3DkVL.jpg?v=1754896575"}],"url":"https:\/\/usedbookdepot.com\/collections\/renaissance-literary-criticism.oembed","provider":"Used Book Depot","version":"1.0","type":"link"}