No Island Is an Island

Four Glances at English Literature in a World Perspective

Carlo Ginzburg author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Columbia University Press

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

No Island Is an Island cover

A world-renowned historian presents a series of four brilliant forays into English literature, from Sir Thomas More to Robert Louis Stevenson.

In No Island Is an Island an internationally renowned historian approaches four works of English literature from unexpected angles. Following in the footsteps of a sixteenth-century Spanish bishop we gain a fresh view of Thomas More's Utopia. Comparing Bayle's Dictionary with Tristram Shandy we suddenly enter into Laurence Sterne's mind. A seemingly narrow dispute among Elizabethan critics for and against rhyme turns into an early debate on English national identity. Robert Louis Stevenson's story "The Bottle Imp" throws a new light on Bronislaw Malinowsky's attempts to discover meaning in the "kula" trading system among the Trobriand Islanders. Throughout, Ginzburg's inquiry is informed by his unique microhistorical sensibility, his attention to minute detail, and his extraordinary synthesizing imagination.

These complex, clever essays... will appeal to scholars who choose to view literature and history in an international, comparative context. Library Journal

ISBN: 9780231116282

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: unknown

128 pages