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.

 

For the second edition of this volume a considerable number of changes have been made. William P. Weaver has provided us with a superbly revised and updated translation of More's Utopia. We have added several additional sonnets from Sidney's Astrophil and Stella, and we now include Spenser's letter to Ralegh along with the selections from The Faeirie Queene. Isabella Whitney, who has been included in the website component of the anthology, is now included as part of the bound volume. Perhaps the most significant change for the new edition is the inclusion of more Milton. Samson Agonistes, which has been part of the website component, is now included in the bound book, and we now include more from Paradise Lost; Book 4 and Book 10 now appear in their entirety.

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

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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.”

 

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"Forty-five years [after publication], the Norton remains the 800 lb. gorilla in the classroom. But it faces vigorous and growing competition from other anthologies, notably The Longman Anthology of British Literature and The Broadview Anthology of British Literature…. The most recent entry in the field, the Broadview, [is distinguished by its] selections, longer introductions, more visual material, and a souped-up Web component."

The Chronicle of Higher Education

"The Broadview Anthology is wonderful. I’m very pleased—and my students love it too!"

Julian Hanna

"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