The Seventeenth Century Handbook provides the undergraduate with a succinct account of the century’s events, along with an exploration of the ways the literature reflected and helped shape the history of the time. Provides a coherent narrative of the entire century of literary history as well as an easy-to-use guide to the principal literary works and figuresOffers an exploration of the ways the literature reflected and helped shape the history of the timeDescribes the continuities as well as the radical changes in this century of civil war and reformationCombines a central narrative account of “texts and contexts” with a selection of brief essays on key texts and topicsIncludes an alphabetical selection of capsule descriptions of important writers