Publisher's Synopsis
It is widely agreed that the period from about 1625 to 1700 witnessed radical shifts in English life and thought. Although the year 1660 to some extent marks a turning-point, this volume demonstrates an underlying "continuity" within the period of Stuart rule. It presents thinkers and writers before and after 1660 responding to similar dilemmas, albeit with different attitudes, methods and conclusions.;The book examines changing attitudes to authority and reason in all spheres of life. Within this framework the contributors consider social and political history, religious belief and scientific knowledge; the influence of the classical world; and the relationship of other arts - painting, sculpture, architecture, gardening - to the literature of the time.;This book should be of interest to undergraduates and academics of English literature and social history in the early modern period.
