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Additional Reading > The Renaissance period, 1550–1660 > Elizabethan poetry and prose
In terms of material covered, C.S. Lewis, English Literature in the Sixteenth Century, Excluding the Drama (1954, reprinted 1997), remains without rival, although some of its judgments now seem very dated. Also impressive for its coverage is David Loewenstein and Janel Mueller (eds.), The Cambridge History of Early Modern English Literature (2002), which has essays on topics surveying the whole field. A less-ambitious collection, though still highly useful, is Michael Hattaway (ed.), A Companion to English Renaissance Literature and Culture (2000). Challenging and provocative reinterpretations of the period are Stephen Greenblatt, Renaissance Self-Fashioning (1980, reissued 2005); and David Norbrook, Poetry and Politics in the English Renaissance, rev. ed. (2002). Works devoted to particular topics include Gary Waller, English Poetry of the Sixteenth Century, 2nd ed. (1993); J.W. Lever, The Elizabethan Love Sonnet, 2nd ed. (1966, reprinted 1978); and Linda Woodbridge, Women and the English Renaissance (1984).

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