Thomas Browne

Description

This volume in the 21st Century Oxford Authors series offers students an authoritative, comprehensive selection of the work of Sir Thomas Browne (1605-1682). The edition introduces students to one of the most brilliant and wide-ranging of writers in Renaissance England and includes an Introduction and full commentary notes.

• Introduces students to the life and work of Thomas Browne, the seventeenth century writer of some of the most brilliant and delirious prose in English
• Browne's work is presented in chronological order, allowing students to study his development and growth as a writer
• The works are presented free of annotation on the page, allowing students to encounter the original texts afresh
• Explanatory notes and commentary are located at the end of the book, providing students with a wealth of additional material and information that will enhance the understanding and enjoyment of these works
• An essential teaching resource, representing Browne's work in all its variety

About the Author(s)

Edited by Kevin Killeen, Lecturer in Renaissance Literature, University of York

Kevin Killeen is Lecturer in English Literature at the University of York. He has written extensively on Thomas Browne and the intellectual culture of the seventeenth century, as well as the history of science and religion. He writes also on the politics of early modern England and its use of the Bible in thinking about political questions. Among his books is the prize winning Biblical Scholarship, Science and Politics in Early Modern Culture: Thomas Browne and The Thorny Place of Knowledge (2009).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
List of illustrations
Introduction
Notes on Text and Annotation
Religio Medici (1643)
Pseudodoxia Epidemica (1646)
Hydriotaphia or Urn-Burial (1658)
The Garden of Cyrus (1658)
Certain Miscellany Tracts (1683)
Letter to a Friend (1690)
Christian Morals (1716)
Notes

Reviews

"Killeen's edition is a heartily welcome single-volume Browne that gives us a generous vista of this most expansive writer. Its very generous annotations, in particular, will help introduce new readers and clarify his complex subtleties for specialists. " - Claire Preston, Queen Mary University of London

"Kevin Killeen's superb one-volume edition of Thomas Browne's major works provides students, scholars, and instructors with clear, lightly modernized texts and generous supporting glosses that enable and enrich access to the author's original voice, ideas, and learning without ever overwhelming or overburdening the reader. Killeen's literary and biographical introductions amply prepare us for the complex interplay between forms and genres exhibited throughout Browne's writings, and for the remarkable conjunction of natural philosophy, religion, antiquarianism, and classical scholarship represented by the author himself. " - Matthew Woodcock, University of East Anglia

"Kevin Killeen offers a generous selection of freshly edited texts richly contextualized in their bibliographical and cultural context. Teachers and scholars of Browne will welcome this much needed one-volume edition of this important seventeenth-century savant. " - Brent Nelson, University of Saskatchewan