Bring on more 17th-century English literature!

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Bring on more 17th-century English literature!

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1robertla
Juil 4, 2014, 12:45 pm

I love this series, a few of my favorite volumes are the ones dedicated to Renaissance English literature:

Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy

http://www.amazon.com/Anatomy-Melancholy-Review-Books-Classics/dp/0940322668/ref...

Browne's Religio Medici

http://www.amazon.com/Religio-Medici-Urne-Buriall-Review-Classics/dp/1590174887/...

Florio's translation of Montaigne used by Shakespeare

http://www.amazon.com/Shakespeares-Montaigne-Translation-Selection-Classics/dp/1...

My criticism of NYRB would be that they concentrate too much on somewhat obscure modern authors instead of neglected classic authors.

For example, I would LOVE to see NYRB volumes of Jeremy Taylor's Holy Dying

http://www.amazon.com/Holy-Living-Dying-II/dp/0198123493/ref=sr_1_1_title_0_main...

and Sir Walter Ralegh's History of the World, of which I've only read tantalizing excerpts

http://www.amazon.com/History-World-Sir-Walter-Raleigh/dp/1231100435/ref=sr_1_1_...

So far as I can tell, neither of these works has ever been issued in a modern paperback edition. (I'm not including those horrible facsimile editions listed on Amazon by Nabu, Kessenger, and the like.)

So come on, NYRB, please include a few more bona fide neglected classics in your line-up!

2robertla
Juil 4, 2014, 1:14 pm

Another edition I'd love to see is a volume containing Jasper Heywood's translations of three plays by Seneca -- Thyestes, The Trojan Women, The Madness of Hercules:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jasper_Heywood

These translations were a huge influence upon the Elizabethan dramatists including Shakespeare. This volume would make a wonderful companion to the Florio translation of Shakespeare!

Heywood's translations were included in "Seneca: His Tenne Tragedies" published by Indiana University Press with a foreword by T. S. Eliot in the 1960s but that edition is very difficult to find (and very expensive used):

http://www.amazon.com/Seneca-Tenne-Tragedies-Thomas-Newton/dp/B000NTI60Y/ref=sr_...

If you're interested in other works that influenced Shakespeare, like the translations of Florio and Heywood, this book is excellent, one of my favorite books to browse in recent years -- "Shakespeare's Books: A Dictionary of His Sources"

http://www.amazon.com/Shakespeares-Books-Dictionary-Shakespeare-Sources/dp/08264...

3robertla
Juil 12, 2014, 2:44 pm

I think my main request might've gotten lost amid all the hyperlinks above, so here it is again, short and sweet:

NYRB, please publish reader-friendly paperback editions of Jeremy Taylor's "Holy Dying" and Ralegh's "History of the World".

Both of these works easily transcend their age and speak directly to modern readers -- in other words, they're classics!