Common: The Development of Literary Culture in Sixteenth-Century England

[...] this is an extraordinary study. Without denying or side-lining the social and economic dimensions, Rhodes sets out to tell a distinctively literary story about Tudor English culture. He covers an enormous range of materials from disparate periods, yet rarely sounds like anything but an expert. [...] his treatment of it will resonate with the impression of many literary critics that something special happened in the final decades of the sixteenth century. * Beth Quitslund, the Spenser Review *
This ambitious and wide-ranging book offers nothing less than a new account of English literary culture during the sixteenth century. * Hannah Crawforth, Literature & History *
No such summary can do justice to the ambitious, encyclopedic scope of Rhodes's erudite study. Common brings together topics, texts, and authors often discussed independently of each other, constructing a vast assemblage that produces not only countless local insights but also a coherent general picture of the sixteenth century... Rhodes's study is smart, ambitious, and essential. It will undoubtedly reshape, for years to come, our conception of the sixteenth century in England. * Corey McEleney, Renaissance Quarterly *
Common is a richly illustrated argument, and a welcome contribution to the great debate on early modern STEM, Should Teaching English Matter? * Esther Osorio Whewell, Cambridge Quarterly *
This is an erudite and absorbing book. Rhodes has rewritten big portions of arguments about the development of early modern literary history in England, which makes his book indispensable for further scholarly exploration of this period * Goran Stanivukovic, Renaissance and Reformation / Renaissance et Reforme *
No summary or paraphrase could fully capture the experience of reading this ambitious, exhaustively researched book. * Jenny C Mann, The Review of English Studies *
One antonym for the common (not much, if at all, mentioned by Rhodes) is the 'rare'. This is a book of rare distinction -- in its width of reading, its scale of ambition, its Empsonianly extended apprehension of the English language. If only books this good were more common. * Robert Stagg, Renaissance Studies *
The 32-page bibliography and hundreds of footnotes testify to the book's scholarship ... Summing up: Recommended * CHOICE *
As humanities scholars scurry to complete monographs at a speed that satisfies the demands of tenure and promotion, it has become sadly rare to produce scholarly books with a magisterial vista that engages a broad expanse of readers. Neil Rhodes's Common is an admirable exception to this trend. At its best, the book offers a fresh, new version of C. S. Lewis's 1954 English Literature in the Sixteenth Century Excluding Drama (Oxford: Oxford University Press), one that not only includes (and culminates with) drama but also speaks to the social, political, and religious "backgrounds" of English Renaissance literature. * Jessica Wolfe, Sixteenth Century Journal *
The story that Rhodes has to tell is fascinating, and this book deserves an important place in our understanding of how early modern English literature developed. * Beth Quitslund, Ohio University *