Shakespeare: The Sonnets

This introduction reflects the recent upsurge in academic interest in Shakespeare's non-dramatic verse. Part 1 adopts a thematic approach to the Sonnets, guiding students through detailed textual analyses. Part 2 provides a clear critical and contextual framework for interpreting the poems, examining the development and characteristics of sonnet form, humanist themes and early modern print culture, concluding with a survey of the critical history of the Sonnets.

JOHN BLADES has lectured in English Literature at the universities of Leeds and Durham, UK. His publications include critical studies of James Joyce and John Keats: The Poems and Wordsworth and Coleridge: Lyrical Ballads, also in the Analysing Texts series.