On the night of November 4^th 1605, the English authorities uncovered an alleged plot by a group of discontented Catholics to blow up the Houses of Parliament with the lords, princes, queen and king in attendance. The failure of the plot is celebrated to this day and is known as Guy Fawkes Day.

In Poets, Players and Preachers, Anne James explores the literary responses to the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot in poetry, drama, and sermons. This book is the first full-length study of the literary repercussions of the conspiracy. By analyzing the genres of poems, plays, and sermons produced between 1605 and 1688, the author argues that not only did the continuous reinterpretation of the conspiracy serve religious and political purposes but that such literary reinterpretations produced generic changes.

"Anne James has crafted a well-written and meticulously researched book that is erudite and extremely illuminating." -- Estelle Haan, School of English, Queen's University Belfast

About the Author
Anne James is an instructor in the Department of English at the University of Regina.

Reviews

'Masterful, nuanced, and at times almost overwhelming treatment of Gunpowder Plot.'

-- Leah Knight * Renaissance and Reformation vol 40:04:2017 *

"Poets, Players and Preachers is an ambitious book, as rewarding as it is challenging, covering a wide range of genres stretching across a hundred years of history and drawing on a wide range of scholarship and theory."

-- Brent Nelson * Seventeenth Century News *

"[This book] is a fine example of the iterative relationship between literary and historical inquiry, as well as a complex account of how the memory of a single (and ultimately failed) historical event can come to serve widely divergent ends."

-- Todd Butler * Seventeenth Century News *

"Poets, Players and Preachers offers a captivating study of the literary repercussions of the Gunpowder Plot. James makes it clear that this is very much a historicist approach to literary studies and demonstrates the importance and advantages that a greater interdisciplinary relationship between literary and historical studies can bring to enrich our understanding of intention, transmission, and reception of early modern literature."

-- Tatyana Zhukova, University of Nottingham * The Sixteenth Century Journal, Vol xlix, no 2, Summer 2018 *



Book Information
ISBN 9781442649378
Author Anne James
Format Hardback
Page Count 424
Imprint University of Toronto Press
Publisher University of Toronto Press
Weight(grams) 780g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 165mm * 25mm