Awards

• Winner of Winner of the Richard L. Greaves Prize of the International John Bunyan Society.
• Winner of Winner of the Richard L. Greaves Prize of the John Bunyan Society.

Overview

The Oxford Handbook of John Bunyan is the most extensive volume of original essays ever published on the seventeenth-century Nonconformist preacher and writer, John Bunyan. Its thirty-eight chapters examine Bunyan's life and works, their religious and historical contexts, and the critical reception of his writings, in particular his allegorical narrative, The Pilgrim's Progress. Interdisciplinary and comprehensive, it provides unparalleled scope and expertise, ranging from literary theory to religious history and from theology to post-colonial criticism. The Handbook is structured in four sections. The first, 'Contexts', deals with the historical Bunyan in relation to various aspects of his life, background, and work as a Nonconformist: from basic facts of biography to the nature of his church at Bedford, his theology, and the religious and political cultures of seventeenth-century Dissent. Part 2 considers Bunyan's literary output: from his earliest printed tracts to his posthumously published works. Offering discrete chapters on Bunyan's major works--Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners (1666), The Pilgrim's Progress, Parts I and II (1678; 1684); The Life and Death of Mr. Badman (1680), and The Holy War (1682)--this section nevertheless covers Bunyan's oeuvre in its entirety: controversial and pastoral, narrative and poetic. Section 3, 'Directions in Criticism', engages with Bunyan in literary critical terms, focusing on his employment of form and language and on theoretical approaches to his writings: from psychoanalytic to post-secular criticism. Section 4, 'Journeys', tackles some of the ways in which Bunyan's works, and especially The Pilgrim's Progress, have travelled throughout the world since the late seventeenth century, assessing Bunyan's place within key literary periods and their distinctive developments: from the eighteenth-century novel to the writing of 'empire.'

Full Product Details

Author:   Michael Davies (Senior Lecturer in English, Senior Lecturer in English, University of Liverpool) ,  W. R. Owens (Emeritus Professor of English Literature, Emeritus Professor of English Literature, Open University)
Publisher:   Oxford University Press
Imprint:   Oxford University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 17.10cm , Height: 4.70cm , Length: 24.60cm
Weight:   0.001kg
ISBN:  

9780199581306

ISBN 10:   0199581304
Pages:   734
Publication Date:   26 July 2018
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  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.

Table of Contents

Michael Davies: Introduction: Bunyan's Presence PART I: CONTEXTS 1: Michael A. Mullett: Bunyan's Life, Bunyan's Lives 2: John Coffey: Bunyan's England: The Trials and Triumphs of Restoration Dissent 3: Anne Dunan-Page: Bunyan and the Bedford Congregation 4: Dewey D. Wallace, Jr.: Bunyan's Theology and Religious Context 5: Alison Searle: Bunyan and the Word 6: Roger Pooley: Bunyan's Reading 7: Margaret J. M. Ezell: Bunyan and Gender 8: N. H. Keeble: 'Come ye out from among them, and be ye separate': Bunyan and the Writing of Dissent 9: Kathleen Lynch: Bunyan's Partners in Print PART II: WORKS 10: David Walker: Early Works: Bunyan in the 1650s 11: David Gay: Bunyan in Prison: Writings from the 1660s 12: Nigel Smith: Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners (1666) 13: Ken Simpson: 'The Desired Countrey': Bunyan's Writings on the Church in the 1670s 14: Michael Davies: Chasing Apollyon's Tale: The Pilgrim's Progress (1678) 15: Katsuhiro Engetsu: The Life and Death of Mr. Badman (1680) 16: Nancy Rosenfeld: The Holy War (1682) 17: Arlette Zinck: Piety and Radicalism: Bunyan's Writings of the 1680s 18: Margaret Olofson Thickstun: The Pilgrim's Progress, Part II (1684) 19: Elizabeth Clarke: 'Truth in Meeter': Bunyan's Poetry and Dissenting Poetics 20: W. R. Owens: Bunyan's Posthumously Published Works PART III: DIRECTIONS IN CRITICISM 21: Jeremy Tambling: Bunyan, Emblem, and Allegory 22: Nick Davis: Bunyan and Romance 23: Mary Ann Lund: The Prose Style of John Bunyan 24: Julie Coleman: The Language of The Pilgrim's Progress 25: Maxine Hancock: 'Nor do thou go to work without my Key': Reading Bunyan Out to the Edges 26: Tamsin Spargo: Bunyan and the Historians 27: Vera J. Camden: Bunyan Unbound: Prison and the Place of Creativity 28: Stuart Sim: Bunyan, Poststructuralism, and Postmodernism 29: Lori Branch: Bunyan, Theory, and Theology: A Case for Postsecular Criticism PART IV: JOURNEYS 30: Cynthia Wall: Bunyan and the Early Novel 31: Isabel Rivers: The Pilgrim's Progress in the Evangelical Revival 32: Jonathan Shears: Bunyan and the Romantics 33: Vincent Newey: Bunyan and the Victorians 34: Joel D. Rasmussen: Bunyan and America 35: Gary Day: Bunyan, Class, and Englishness 36: Nathalie Collé: Wayfaring Images: The Pilgrim's Progress's Pictorial Journey through Time 37: Shannon Murray: Bunyan for Children 38: Sylvia Brown: Bunyan and Empire

Reviews

This is the ideal book for all Bunyan enthusiasts both within and without the churches ... the editors are to be congratulated not only on a wide-ranging choice of essay topics ... Oxford University Press has produced a handsome volume which would be welcome on most book lovers' shelves. * Alan Argent, Congregational History Society Magazine *

This is the ideal book for all Bunyan enthusiasts both within and without the churches ... the editors are to be congratulated not only on a wide-ranging choice of essay topics ... Oxford University Press has produced a handsome volume which would be welcome on most book lovers' shelves. * Alan Argent, Congregational History Society Magazine * [The book] is an extensive resource that will be consulted by people seeking an informative yet focussed introduction to the man, his works, his times and his influence. * Stephen Copson, Baptist Quarterly * With an impressive range of high-quality contributions from the best scholars in the field, The Oxford Handbook of John Bunyan was always likely to become the most important single volume guide to this hugely significant puritan writer for a generation; what cannot have been foreknown (although it must have been pre-planned at length) is the sheer delight with which the reader peruses this elegantly constructed and beautifully readable account of the order and structure of Bunyan's mental and physical worlds. * Mark Burden, University of Bristol, The Seventeenth Century * This beautifully-produced volume is coherent, wide-ranging, and full of delights. It brings together a global roster of Bunyan experts from the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, France, Japan and Israel who write with confidence on topics that they have pursued throughout their careers. Contributors cite each other's work frequently, creating a strong sense of respect for foregoing scholarship and creating a dynamic of long-running conversations being picked up and pursued. A volume could not contain more expertise that this. * Tessa Whitehouse, XVII-XVIII: Revue de la Societe d'etudes anglo-americaines des XVIIe et XVIIIe siecles *

This is the ideal book for all Bunyan enthusiasts both within and without the churches ... the editors are to be congratulated not only on a wide-ranging choice of essay topics ... Oxford University Press has produced a handsome volume which would be welcome on most book lovers' shelves. * Alan Argent, Congregational History Society Magazine * [The book] is an extensive resource that will be consulted by people seeking an informative yet focussed introduction to the man, his works, his times and his influence. * Stephen Copson, Baptist Quarterly *

The surprising facility with which Bunyan's works have been appropriated in the service of widely divergent philosophical, political, and aesthetic arguments is beautifully exemplified by this wonderfully readable, interesting, and useful volume. * Mark Burden, The Seventeenth Century * There can be no doubting the worth of this remarkable collection of essays on all things Bunyan. It is a celebration of the last fruitful few decades in which Bunyan Studies has come into its own. This is also a monumental work: nearly seven-hundred pages long; structured with elegant coherence in four parts; comprising no less than 38 essays plus an introduction; and including the mature work of so many capable scholars at the top of their game. The sheer magnitude of the volume, together with the vision, labour and ambition of the editors, is impressive. * Tim Cooper, The Journal of Andrew Fuller Studies * This beautifully-produced volume is coherent, wide-ranging, and full of delights. It brings together a global roster of Bunyan experts from the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, France, Japan and Israel who write with confidence on topics that they have pursued throughout their careers. Contributors cite each other's work frequently, creating a strong sense of respect for foregoing scholarship and creating a dynamic of long-running conversations being picked up and pursued. A volume could not contain more expertise that this. * Tessa Whitehouse, XVII-XVIII: Revue de la Soci'et'e d''etudes anglo-am'ericaines des XVIIe et XVIIIe si`ecles * With an impressive range of high-quality contributions from the best scholars in the field, The Oxford Handbook of John Bunyan was always likely to become the most important single volume guide to this hugely significant puritan writer for a generation; what cannot have been foreknown (although it must have been pre-planned at length) is the sheer delight with which the reader peruses this elegantly constructed and beautifully readable account of the order and structure of Bunyan's mental and physical worlds. * Mark Burden, University of Bristol, The Seventeenth Century * [The book] is an extensive resource that will be consulted by people seeking an informative yet focussed introduction to the man, his works, his times and his influence. * Stephen Copson, Baptist Quarterly * This is the ideal book for all Bunyan enthusiasts both within and without the churches ... the editors are to be congratulated not only on a wide-ranging choice of essay topics ... Oxford University Press has produced a handsome volume which would be welcome on most book lovers' shelves. * Alan Argent, Congregational History Society Magazine *

Author Information

Michael Davies is Senior Lecturer in English at the University of Liverpool. Among his publications is Graceful Reading: Theology and Narrative in the Works of John Bunyan (2002). He is currently preparing a critical edition of The Bunyan Church Book, 1656-1710 for Oxford University Press. W. R. Owens is Emeritus Professor of English Literature at the Open University, and Visiting Professor at the University of Bedfordshire. His publications include volumes XII and XIII of The Miscellaneous Works of John Bunyan (1994), editions of Grace Abounding (1987) and The Pilgrim's Progress (2003), The Canonisation of Daniel Defoe (co-author, 1988), A Critical Bibliography of Daniel Defoe (co-author, 1998), The Works of Daniel Defoe (joint General Editor, 44 volumes, 2000-2009), and an edition of The Gospels: Authorized King James Version (2011).

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