- Paperback: 466 pages
- Publisher: OUP Oxford; New Ed edition (27 Mar 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0198186258
- ISBN-13: 978-0198186250
- Product Dimensions: 22.6 x 15.6 x 2.5 cm
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,438,646 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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..".an ambitious, sprawling biography....[a] major achievement in historical biography and literary history.... Both for its thorough study of Surrey's life and legacy, and for the bold enterprise of its aims and methods, Henry Howard, the Poet Earl of Surrey is necessary reading for scholars of the Tudor period."--Moreana
"Intriguing...gives ample analysis of Surrey's verse and its importance to English letters...[Sessions attempts] to write more than just a literary biography, he wants to re-create the mentalite of Surrey and his world"--Sewanee Review
"Sessions's new biographypersuasively redefines Surrey's importance for Renaissance literature and politics, dramatically raising the profile of this somewhat neglected figure... A rich account of Surrey's influential political ideals and poetic legacy."--Studies in English Literature 1500-1900
"This book fills a 450-year-old gap as it represents the apotheosis of Henry Howard, earl of Surrey... [It] is far superi
Publisher
"Sessions weaves these materials into an exhaustive and densely-footnoted biography, as remarkable for its ambition as for its resounding success..."
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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First Sentence
'It was merry in England afore the new learning came up,' said Surrey's father, Thomas Howard, the third Duke of Norfolk, in an uncontrolled aside. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
'It was merry in England afore the new learning came up,' said Surrey's father, Thomas Howard, the third Duke of Norfolk, in an uncontrolled aside. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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2 reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
An extraordinary view of the life of a noble Tudor poet.
22 Sep 1999
Format:Hardcover
The Earl of Surrey was the co-founder, along with Sir Thomas Wyatt, of modern English poetry; the whole procession from Spenser and Shakespeare down to Yeats and Eliot starts with Surrey and Wyatt. Surrey's most notable contributions were the creation of English blank verse and the development of the English sonnet from Italian models; without Surrey we should not have Shakespeare as we know him. Surrey was also a distinguished soldier and a loving husband, who was executed for treason at age twenty-nine.
The nineteenth century produced two excellent lives of Surrey, those of G. F. Nott and Edmond Bapst, the latter in French. The twentieth century had not done so well, as the principal accomplishment of Surrey's 1938 biographer, Edwin Casady, was translating Bapst's discoveries into English. William Sessions swings the balance the other way, his Henry Howard, the Poet Earl of Surrey being a magnificent tour of Surrey's life, his poetry, and his world.
Sessions offers the first fully integrated biography of Surrey, addressing his art, family, society, culture, religion, travels, and military career. The book is based on a massive amount of research, both archival and geographical, for Sessions visited virtually every site of importance in Surrey's life. The illustrations alone, some never published before or not properly identified, almost justify the cost of the book.
Sessions corrects many key facts of Surrey's unevenly documented career. He shows, for example, that Surrey was a moderate Protestant, whereas Nott, Bapst, and Casady simply assume that Surrey shared their own religious views--an approach complicated by the fact that Nott was a Protestant while the other two were Catholics. Getting Surrey's religion straight is absolutely essential to understanding a short life spent at the center of the escalating violence of the early Reformation. Finally, Sessions uses the full texts of the original documents concerning Surrey's downfall (instead of reading the published summaries), thereby untangling much of the mystery that occurred amid the religious strife, dynastic uncertainty, and naked ambition at the end of the reign of Henry VIII.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Outstanding work by famous scholar
24 Mar 2004
Format:Hardcover
I had the privilege of being Dr. William A. Sessions' research assistant at Georgia State University, and I have never seen, before or since, a work of such outstanding scholarly research written in his unique style of combining scholarship with human insight -- making this work accessible to all, and extremely useful to the academic community. It is a fascinating story, well told--possibly the first academic "page-turner." This important biography is written with such insight and so compellingly one cannot put it down. It is an extraordinary work by a brilliant scholar who is also a marvelous writer.
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