The Cambridge Companion to Thomas More

A comprehensive overview of the life and times of Thomas More, including in-depth studies of his major written works.

George M. Logan (Edited by)

9780521888622, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 27 January 2011

330 pages
23.5 x 15.6 x 2 cm, 0.66 kg

“The Cambridge Companion to Thomas More provides a valuable overview of Thomas More’s life and works, augmenting our understanding of both as well as challenging conventional approaches to his biography and literary criticism. As such, the value of the articles within this text extends beyond More scholarship, enriching a variety of approaches to Renaissance study and the early modern classroom.” --Gaywyn Moore, Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Teaching (SMART)

This Companion offers a comprehensive introduction to the life and work of a major figure of the modern world. Combining breadth of coverage with depth, the book opens with essays on More's family, early life and education, his literary humanism, virtuoso rhetoric, illustrious public career and ferocious opposition to emergent Protestantism, and his fall from power, incarceration, trial and execution. These chapters are followed by in-depth studies of five of More's major works - Utopia, The History of King Richard the Third, A Dialogue Concerning Heresies, A Dialogue of Comfort against Tribulation and De Tristitia Christi - and a final essay on the varied responses to the man and his writings in his own and subsequent centuries. The volume provides an accessible overview of this fascinating figure to students and other interested readers, whilst also presenting, and in many areas extending, the most important modern scholarship on him.

Notes on contributors
Preface
List of abbreviations
Chronology
Part I. Life, Times and Work: 1. The making of a London citizen Caroline M. Barron
2. Thomas More as humanist James McConica
3. More's rhetoric Elizabeth McCutcheon
4. More's public life Catherine Curtis
5. More and the heretics Richard Rex
6. The last years Peter Marshall
Part II. Five Major Works: 7. Reading Utopia Dominic Baker-Smith
8. More on tyranny: The History of King Richard the Third George M. Logan
9. A Dialogue concerning Heresies Eamon Duffy
10. 'In stede of harme inestimable good': A Dialogue of Comfort against Tribulation Andrew W. Taylor
11. The lessons of Gethsemane: De Tristitia Christi Katherine Gardiner Rodgers
Part III. Reception: 12. Afterlives Anne Lake Prescott
Foundational resources for the study of Thomas More
Index.

Subject Areas: Church history [HRCC2], Literary studies: c 1500 to c 1800 [DSBD]