John Dryden and His World
"Winn's ambitious biography draws together what is known about Dryden's life from public records, reminiscences of friends and contemporaries, and sparse revelations in the works. . . . Few have captured Dryden's era so well. Winn's scholarship is excellent." —Library Journal "Winn's book is admirably comprehensive, and it undoubtedly will, as he hopes, send lovers of fine craft and high art back to John Dryden." —Anthony Burgess, Atlantic Monthly "A remarkable biography that is also an insightful account of literary and political life in seventeenth-century London."—Lee Lescaze, Wall Street Journal "James Winn's major scholarly study reinstates Dryden as the dominant original voice in English letters for 40 years. . . . Dryden shines through this book."—Jonathan Clark, The Sunday Times "James Winn's first-rate biography of John Dryden reminds us that in seventeenth-century England poetry was a public act."—Robert Taylor, Boston Globe "Winn's John Dryden and His World is more than a triumph of historical scholarship. It suggests that after almost three centuries of neglect, Dryden's time has come round again. . . . To read Dryden today is a true liberal education."—Thomas D'Evelyn, Christian Science Monitor "In matters of concrete fact Winn's new biography is more detailed and thorough by far than any previously attempted; after making due allowance for the biographer's exceptional bias, students will find it minute and scrupulous in recounting the particulars of Dryden's life."—Robert M. Adams, The New York Review of Books "Dryden's tolerance and integrity fit him for our times too, and recognition of his moral forcefulness, the counterpart to the negative power of his more famous satires, is overdue. Winn's biography is a handsome payment of that account."—Paul Hartle, Country Life "Mr. Winn's authoritative scholarship brings a fascinating canvas to life. He offers not only intelligent analysis but a sympathetic grasp of Dryden's difficult position as the first English professional man of letters. . . . A thoroughly engrossing book. It manages in an exemplary way to join a mans life with his literary works, demonstrating that in Dryden's case they were virtually one."—Ronald Paulson, Washington Times "This is a splendid book whose chief quality lies in Winn's patient unraveling of the complex skein of personal and political allusions contained in Dryden's poetry."—David Nokes, Spectator "John Dryden was the major artistic victim of the Revolution and it's therefore appropriate that James Anderson Winn's magnificent new biography of the Stuart Poet Laureate should celebrate the achievement of a writer who ended his life as an impoverished Catholic dissident in William's new Orange state. . . . An exemplary writer, Dryden managed to survive on the proceeds of his pen through 40 years of vicious political violence. His new biographer brings that period of assassinations, pamphlet wars, rigged trials and legalised murder vividly to life and his fine study is a fitting monument to the figure who is, after Milton, England's most engage writer."—Tom Paulin, Observer "This book will no doubt remain the standard biography of Dryden for the remainder of this century. . . . Winn's biography is a major event in Dryden scholarship, accessible to general readers and undergraduates."—Choice "It is the most important biography of Dryden ever written. . . . It is authoritative without austerity, and you could not find a more Augustan form of praise than that."—Pat Rogers, The New York Times Book Review "The most complete and best illustrated biography of Dryden thus far. . . . A fully developed portrait of Dryden as a professional man of letters. . . . Winn leaves readers with a good grasp of Dryden's style and themes. . . . The book chronicles the history of the Age of Dryden, affording its readers a clear account of the political, religious, and aesthetic controversies of the time."—Stanley Archer, Magill's Literary Annual "Winn has written very simply in the belief that Dryden is a great writer and that he can help us understand Dryden's aims, point of view, and context. . . . It gives us an immensely fuller, clearer, and fairer picture of its subject than we have ever had before and it does as much for its subject as any biography has done for an important eighteenth-century author. . . . This is a remarkable achievement. . . . It gives us a new foundation for Dryden studies, and it will assuredly be a key point of reference for all Dryden scholars of our time."—Robert D. Hume, Studies in English Literature "Winn's John Dryden and His World will now, and deservedly, become the authoritative life of Dryden."—Susan Staves, Michigan Quarterly Review "A careful, readable, and well-illustrated book that admirably meets Johnson's challenge and should widen the number of both the Dryden-curious and the existing enthusiasts. . . . a biography such as this not only illuminates the poet and his times, but makes the reader wish that there were such a genre of muscular political poetry alive today."—J. L. Styan, Albion "Winn's detailed, handsome account of John Dryden and His World deserves warm welcome."—Earl Miner, Journal of English & Germanic Philology "James Winn has given us a biography of the sort not often seen, or even attempted, these days: a 'life and times.' One needs an acquiescent publisher for such an undertaking, of course, and the Yale Press has been generous, lavish might be the term, on the score of bookmaking, with ample margins, illustrations placed on the page of the text they illustrate, a long, analytical index; all the trimmings. . . . In a fascinating opening chapter Winn describes life in the Northamptonshire countryside where Dryden grew up in the years just before and during the Civil War. For the reader's convenience—and surely every reader in the American South will appreciate this—he includes a sixteen-page genealogical foldout of Dryden's family on both sides. . . . Winn and Dryden hit their stride in the chapters on those great satires, MacFlecknoe and Absalom and Achitophel. . . . Clearly written, it is dense with biographical fact and literary judgment, addressed to the student and the scholar. It should find an appreciative audience among students and scholars for a long time to come."—Calhoun Winton, Southern Humanities Review "The detail of Winn's book is most impressive. . . . Winn's biography is a work of ripe, heartwarming scholarship."—T.A.B., English Studies "[A] magnificent biography with its superb grasp of the ethos which sustained Dryden's poetry."—English Studies "'Monumental. . . . After Winn, any book on Dryden is bound to disappoint."—Dutch Quarterly Review of American Letters "Among all the major writers of the Restoration period and the eighteenth century, Dryden has remained the most elusive. . . . It is all the more remarkable, therefore, that Winn has succeeded in producing a vivid portrait of Dryden that has the ring of truth to it. John Dryden and His World completely supersedes its predecessor. . . . One of the most gratifying surprises of Winn's book is the extent to which he is able to say something new and rewarding about works that been discussed so many times by previous critics. . . . He is never perfunctory, and we are given fresh insights. . . on nearly every piece. Winn is especially good at analyzing poetic language and, thanks to a tenacious memory for Dryden's recurrent images, he is able to trace their progress through a succession of poems as Dryden refurbishes and recycles them again and again to serve new uses. . . . Thanks to Winn's own research and that of others as Paul Hammond, whose contributions he gratefully acknowledges, some new material has come to light, particularly on Dryden's boyhood and early youth. . . . Dryden's life has at last received the comprehensive study we were awaiting. John Dryden and His World should take its place among those literary biographies that have brought distinction to recent scholarship in the Restoration period and the eighteenth century."—Phillip Harth, Modern Philology"One has here something like a Dryden encyclopedia, primarily a work of reference, secondarily a life story. . . . The specialists who will use this book will get on well with it. The facts are there, separable from the literary criticism (in general, highly perceptive) and from the inference and speculation (sometimes brilliantly ingenious)."—David Wykes, Notes and Queries "The thoroughness with which Winn has assembled and documented his material. . . together with the skill and clarity with which he has knitted a complex body of data into a single, continuous narrative, mark a substantial advance on the two most recent attempts to give a comprehensive account of Dryden's life and career. . . . The new biography's full and scrupulous acknowledgement of previous scholarship will equip researchers with ample leads to follow up in their own investigations. John Dryden and His World is thus clearly a book which any teacher or advanced student of Dryden and his period will wish to own and to consult regularly. . . . Most attractively produced, with a beautifully-designed dust-jacket and aptly chosen illustrations, carefully integrated into its elegantly-printed text. The book is, indeed, a model of tasteful and durable publishing and its every physical feature signals that it is intended to give pleasure to a large general readership, as well as serving the utilitarian needs of a smaller number of academic specialists."—David Hopkins, The Cambridge Quarterly "[A] richly informative book, which follows Dryden's career in its familial, educational, political, historical, theatrical, literary, and religious contexts through over five hundred large and well-illustrated pages of text, several appendices, and ninety pages of formidable notes."—Jenny Mezciems, Review of English Studies "Historians of politics as well as of literature are deeply in Professor Winn's debt."—Robert Latham, English Historical Review "In this lavishly produced book. . . James Winn gathers together a host of biographical and political details about John Dryden and late seventeenth-century England. . . . One is. . . grateful for all the biographical and political data unearthed and drawn together in this life of Dryden. One appreciates the fine sleuthing, the perceptive tie-ins between the poet's words and the political happenings of each period. Winn shows sensitivity to the poet's musical effects and to his irony. . . . It . . . places a welcome emphasis on Dryden's sincerity and on his loyalty to his friends."—Anne Barbeau Gardiner, Journal of Modern History "No reader of Mr. Winn's biography of Dryden can fail to be impressed by the astonishing amount of information that he has managed to incorporate within his narrative and critical framework. . . . The weave of biographical speculation and fact with literary criticism gives the impression that Dryden the man was one with his writings. We have never had that so clearly before, and . . . it would be hard to deny that Mr. Winn's biography is a major achievement."—Maximilliam E. Novak, The Scriblerian "Winn's book is thoroughly documented, clearly and attractively laid out and written in an efficient, business-like manner, whose purposes are the uncomplicated transmission of factual and historical data, and the creation of a judicious critical perspective. . . . This book will be consulted for many years by scholars of Dryden and of seventeenth-century culture."—Greg Clingham, Eighteenth-Century Studies "Honest, thorough, and completely partial to its subject. . . . An admirable scholarly and engaged biography of an elusive and important writer. Winn has placed all students of Dryden in his debt."—David Oakleaf, Queen's Quarterly
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