User:Fowler&fowler/Britannica authors and prose
The Encyclopaedia Britannica article on "English literature" is written by nine authors.
Authors
The nine authors of the Encyclopaedia Britannica article on "English literature":
- (a) Old English period and Early Middle English period: Peter S. Baker, Professor of Medieval Literature, University of Virginia, and author/editor of many books, including Introduction to Old English
- (b) Later Middle English and Early Renaissance periods: Richard Beadle, Reader in Medieval English literature and Fellow of St. John's College, University of Cambridge, and author/editor of many books including Cambridge Companion to Medieval Literature
- (c) Renaissance Period 1550–1660: Marilyn Butler, Emeritus King Edward VIII Professor of English Literature, University of Cambridge and author/editor of many books, including Romantics, Rebels, and Reactionaries,
- (d) Restoration and The 18th century: (i) Michael Cordner, Professor of English Literature, University of York; General editor of "Oxford English Drama" series, and author/editor of many books including English Comedy, (ii) John Mullan, Professor of English, University College London, and author/editor of many books, including Anonymity
- (e) Romantic period: (i) R.P.C. Mutter, Emeritus Professor of English Literature, University of Sussex, and author/editor of many books including Fielding's History of Tom Jones, (ii) John Beer, Emeritus Professor of English Literature, University of Cambridge, and author/editor of many books, including William Blake: A Literary Life, (iii) Nicholas Shrimpton (see below)
- (f) The Post-Romantic and Victorian eras: Nicholas Shrimpton, University Lecturer in Victorian Literature and Vice-Principal Lady Margaret Hall, University of Cambridge, and author/editor of many books including Matthew Arnold: Selected Poetry
- (g) Twentieth Century: Peter Kemp, Fiction Editor, Sunday Times, London, and Fellow of Kellog College, University of Oxford, and author/editor of many books including Oxford Dictionary of Literary Quotations
Sample prose
Here is a sample of the prose from the sub-sub-section on Ben Jonson,
"Jonson began as a self-appointed social legislator, socially conservative but intellectually radical, outraged by a society given over to inordinate appetite and egotism, and ambitious through his mammoth learning to establish himself as the privileged artist, the fearless and faithful mentor and companion to kings; but he was ill at ease with a court inclined in its masques to prefer flattery to judicious advice. ... In these plays, fools and rogues are indulged to the very height of their daring, forcing upon the audience both criticism and admiration; the strategy leaves the audience to draw its own conclusions while liberating Jonson’s wealth of exuberant comic invention, virtuoso skill with plot construction, and mastery of a language tumbling with detailed observation of London’s multifarious ephemera."