Author Description

Based on the hugely popular Fifth Edition of The Oxford Companion to English Literature, edited by Margaret Drabble and published in 1985, this new volume offers more than 5,000 alphabetically arranged entries on individual novels and plays; songs and poems; the lives and works of authors, poets, playwrights, essayists, philosophers, and historians; fictional characters; literary movements; legends; theatres; and periodicals._____This abridgement has sharpened the focus on the English-language literature of the British Isles, but there is still generous coverage of the literature of other countries (including, of course, the United States) and of the works of art, music, science, and other disciplines that have influenced or been influenced by literature. In adapting the parent volume, the editors have eliminated the most peripheral entries and have condensed many of the remaining articles (while retaining the clear and graceful style that characterized the original). At the same time, they have updated information in the entries on modern authors and works and have added several entirely new essays on a number of topics such as Parody, Anachronism, Autobiography, Heroic Drama, and Foreign Influences on English Literature. The result is a book that students and general readers will find indispensable.