Overview
The Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland (1577, 1587), issued under the name of Raphael Holinshed, was the crowning achievement of Tudor historiography, and became the principal source for the historical writings of Spenser, Daniel and, above all, Shakespeare. While scholars have long been drawn to Holinshed for its qualities as a source, they typically dismissed it as a baggy collection of materials, lacking coherent form and analytical insight. This condescending verdict has only recently given way to an appreciation of the literary and historical qualities of these chronicles.The Handbook is a major interdisciplinary undertaking which gives the lie to Holinshed's detractors, and provides original interpretations of a book that has lacked sustained academic scrutiny. Bringing together leading specialists in a variety of fields - literature, history, religion, classics, bibliography, and the history of the book - the Handbook demonstrates that the Chronicles powerfully reflect the nature of Tudor thinking about the past, about politics and society, and about the literary and rhetorical means by which readers might be persuaded of the truth of narrative. The volume shows how distinctive it was for one book to chronicle the history of three nations of the British archipelago. The various sections of the Handbook analyse the making of the two editions of the Chronicles; the relationship of the work to medieval and early modern historiography; its formal properties, genres and audience; attitudes to politics, religion, and society; literary appropriations; and the parallel descriptions and histories of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. The result is a seminal study that shows unequivocally the vitality and complexity of the chronicle form in the late sixteenth century.
Full Product Details
Author: Paulina Kewes (Fellow and Tutor in English, Jesus College Oxford) ,
Ian W. Archer (Fellow and Tutor in History, Keble College Oxford) ,
Felicity Heal (Emeritus Fellow in History, Jesus College Oxford and Fellow of the British Academy)
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Dimensions:
Width: 18.20cm
, Height: 4.80cm
, Length: 25.30cm
Weight: 1.544kg
ISBN: 9780199565757
ISBN 10: 0199565759
Pages: 812
Publication Date: 27 December 2012
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Tertiary & Higher Education
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: To order
Stock availability from the supplier is unknown. We will order it for you and ship this item to you once it is received by us.
Reviews
The editors deserve to be congratulated on an elegant and provocative collection which in its multi-vocality suggests numerous directions for future research. Jason Scott-Warren, Notes and Queries The Handbook is an extremely valuable aid to the fruitful exploration of the varieties of Elizabethan thought and experience. C. S. L. Davies, English Historical Review What editors Paulina Kewes, Ian W. Archer, and Felicity Heal have assembled in the Handbook is a thorough overview of the competing concerns that surround the Chronicles ... At almost eight hundred pages long, the Handbook threatens, upon first appearance, to be an unwieldy account of the Chronicles; and yet, as the reader begins actively to engage with the text, it becomes three-dimensional in the composite perspective formed through the many varied angles from which the Chronicles are viewed. William J. Humphries, The Spenser Review
The editors deserve to be congratulated on an elegant and provocative collection which in its multi-vocality suggests numerous directions for future research. Jason Scott-Warren, Notes and Queries The Handbook is an extremely valuable aid to the fruitful exploration of the varieties of Elizabethan thought and experience. C. S. L. Davies, English Historical Review This book is a major boon for Shakespeare specialists, who should have it in their institutional library, if not on their personal bookshelf. John D. Cox, Shakespeare Quarterly The Oxford Handbook of Holinshedas Chronicles is a fascinating collection of essays. ... It will be a vital reference work for scholars for years to come and in particular for those writing on Elizabethan literature and drama. Thomas Betteridge, Renaissance Quarterly This is a superb collection of essays ... this excellent work bridges digital humanities with printed results, creating a volume useful for scholars and students in a multiplicity of early modern fields of study. Carole Levin and Andrea Nichols, Sixteenth Century Journal a major step forward ... The Oxford Handbook of Holinshed's Chronicles is a major achievement and will be welcomed by early modern scholars of all stripes. Christopher Highley, Huntington Library Quarterly What editors Paulina Kewes, Ian W. Archer, and Felicity Heal have assembled in the Handbook is a thorough overview of the competing concerns that surround the Chronicles ... At almost eight hundred pages long, the Handbook threatens, upon first appearance, to be an unwieldy account of the Chronicles; and yet, as the reader begins actively to engage with the text, it becomes three-dimensional in the composite perspective formed through the many varied angles from which the Chronicles are viewed. William J. Humphries, The Spenser Review
The editors deserve to be congratulated on an elegant and provocative collection which in its multi-vocality suggests numerous directions for future research. Jason Scott-Warren, Notes and Queries The Handbook is an extremely valuable aid to the fruitful exploration of the varieties of Elizabethan thought and experience. C. S. L. Davies, English Historical Review
The editors deserve to be congratulated on an elegant and provocative collection which in its multi-vocality suggests numerous directions for future research. Jason Scott-Warren, Notes and Queries
Author Information
Paulina Kewes is Fellow and Tutor in English Literature at Jesus College, Oxford, and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. Her research interests focus on early modern drama, politics, and historiography. She is the author of Authorship and Appropriation: Writing for the Stage in England, 1660-1710 (1998) and, editor or co-editor of Plagiarism in Early Modern England (2003), The Uses of History in Early Modern England (2006), and The Question of Succession in Late Elizabethan England (2013). Ian W. Archer has been Fellow and Tutor in History at Keble College, Oxford since 1991. His primary research interests lie in the history of early modern London, and he has also published on history and memory. He is a Literary Director of the Royal Historical Society. Felicity Heal is an Emeritus Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford. Her research interests lie in the religious history of Britain and Ireland during the Reformation, in the social history of the gentry, and in gift giving and reciprocity in early modern England. She has written extensively on all these subjects. She is consultant editor for the sixteenth-century section of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. She is a Fellow of the British Academy.
