English Literature in the Sixteenth Century (Excluding Drama)

C. S. Lewis offers a magisterial take on the literature and poetry of one of the most consequential periods in world history, providing deep insight into some of the greatest writers of the age, including Edmund Spenser, William Shakespeare, William Tyndale, John Knox, Dr. Johnson, Richard Hooker, Hugh Latimer, Christopher Marlowe, John Donne, and Thomas Cranmer.

English Literature in the Sixteenth Century is an invigorating overview of English literature from the Norman Conquest through the mid-seventeenth century from one of the greatest public intellectuals of the modern age. In this wise, distinctive collection, C. S. Lewis expounds on the profound impact prose and poetry had on both British intellectual life and his own critical thinking and writing, demonstrated in his deep reflections and essays. 

This incisive work is essential for any serious literature scholar, intellectual Anglophile, or C. S. Lewis fan. 

"At a time when literary history is hesitantly skirting a desert of technicalities, he has written a book in a great tradition, a book almost overwhelmingly rich and assured." - Frank Kermode, BBC Third Programme