In all six of its volumes The Broadview Anthology of British Literature presents British literature in a truly distinctive light. Fully grounded in sound literary and historical scholarship, the anthology takes a fresh approach to many canonical authors, and includes a wide selection of work by lesser-known writers. The anthology also provides wide-ranging coverage of the worldwide connections of British literature, and it pays attention throughout to issues of race, gender, class, and sexual orientation. It includes comprehensive introductions to each period, providing in each case an overview of the historical and cultural as well as the literary background. It features accessible and engaging headnotes for all authors, extensive explanatory annotations throughout, and an unparalleled number of illustrations and contextual materials, offering additional perspectives both on individual texts and on larger social and cultural developments. Innovative, authoritative, and comprehensive, The Broadview Anthology of British Literature embodies a consistently fresh approach to the study of literature and literary history.

 

The second edition of volume one of The Broadview Anthology of British Literature includes considerably more of Langland's Pier’s Plowman than appears in the first edition, and includes for the first time the work of John Gower. Also new to the bound book component of the anthology is the York Crucifixion Play, and additional work by Chaucer.

 

With this volume as with the others, material continues to be added on an ongoing basis to the website component of the anthology.

 

Joseph L. Black is professor and director of Graduate Studies in the Department of English at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Joseph Black's profile page

Leonard Conolly's profile page

Kate Flint's profile page

Isobel Grundy's profile page

Don LePan, founder and CEO of academic publishing house Broadview Press, is the author of several non-fiction books and of two other works of fiction; his novel Animals (2010) has been described by Nobel Prize winner J.M. Coetzee as “a powerful piece of writing and a disturbing call to conscience.”

 

Don LePan's profile page

Roy Liuzza's profile page

Jerome J. McGann's profile page

Anne Lake Prescott's profile page

Barry V. Qualls' profile page

Claire Waters' profile page

"Broadview's recent Anthology of British Literature is an exciting achievement. Broadview has accomplished what no other anthology to date has been able to do. In its selection of materials, the anthology successfully integrates significant but only recently acknowledged works alongside more familiar greats. Its introductory essays and useful appendices successfully reflect current scholarship while remaining student centred. And its generous, wide-ranging contextualizing material will allow instructors to teach surveys of British literature with strong and serious attention to material culture. With an impressive selection of literary works, an equally impressive collection of visual images, and an exemplary emphasis on print culture and history of the language, The Broadview Anthology [...] sets a new standard by which all other anthologies of British Literature will now have to be measured."

GRAHAM HAMMILL, University of Buffalo, SUNY

 

"The Broadview Anthology of British Literature is a marvellously rich anthology with many complete, well-annotated works, a better representation of important figures than any of its competitors, fascinating 'cultural portfolios,' real attention to book- and print-culture, and great examples of transatlantic and postcolonialist literatures."

ELIZABETH HODGSON, University of British Columbia

"The simple fact is that a major work of student-centered scholarship has arrived in the field of English studies, and The Broadview Anthology of British Literature is no mere pretender to the throne long held by the Norton: it is the new standard." RICHARD NORDQUIST, Director of Liberal Studies, Armstrong Atlantic State University

"With the publication of The Broadview Anthology of British Literature, teachers and students in survey and upper-level undergraduate courses have a compelling alternative to the established anthologies from Norton and Longman. Having adopted the first two volumes for an early period survey course last year, I had no hesitation in repeating the experience this year. The medieval volume, in particular, is superb, with its generous representation of Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman literary culture, as well as its growing collection of texts from the too little-known fifteenth century. This is a very real intellectual, as well as pedagogical, achievement." Nicholas Watson, Harvard University

 

"Broadview has done an exquisite job in assembling this exceptional and exhaustive collection. Very nice indeed!"

NAT HARDY, Rogers State University