As the greatest satirist in the English language, Jonathan Swift was both admired and feared in his own time for the power of his writing, and hugely influential on writers who followed him. Swift transformed models such as utopian writing, political pamphleteering and social critique with his dark and uncompromising vision of the human condition, deepening the outlook of contemporaries such as Alexander Pope, and leaving a legacy of Swiftian satire in the work of Hogarth, Fielding, Austen and Beckett, among others. This collection of essays, with its distinguished list of international contributors, centres on Swift, the genres and authors who influenced him, and his impact on satire and satirists from his own time to the twentieth century.

Product Description: Presents a collection of essays, in which internationally-recognized Shakespearean scholars and equally eminent Johnsonians consider the relationship of these two central figures of the English canon - examining not just Shakespeare's influence on Dr Johnson, but also Johnson's influence on Shakespeare...read more

Product Description: This volume, a celebration of the tercentenary of Dryden's death, examines the impact of his work through a range of essays by leading Dryden scholars. These essays pay special attention to two aspects of his work that have received less attention than they deserve: the politics of his plays, and Dryden's position as a poet poised between ancient and modern influences...read more