The Comic Mode in English Literature: From the Middle Ages to Today

Includes close readings of comic drama, poetry and prose from a range of historical periods.

Murray Roston is Emeritus Professor in the Department of English at Bar Ilan University, Israel and Adjunct Professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, USA. Across a 40 year publication history, he has written on a wide variety of topics from Medieval to Contemporary literature.

1. Introduction \ 2. Late Medieval \ i. The Second Shepherds' Play \ ii. Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales \ iii. Medwall, Fulgens and Lucrece \ 3. The Renaissance \ i. Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream \ ii. Falstaff \ iii. Donne, The Flea \ iv. Marvell, The Garden \ 4. The Restoration and Eighteenth Century \ i. Restoration Comedy \ ii. Pope, The Rape of the Lock \ iii. The Vogue of Sentiment \ iv. Sterne, Tristram Shandy \ 5. The Nineteenth Century \ i. Austen, Emma \ ii. Dickens, The Pickwick Papers \ iii. Poking Fun at the Establishment \ iv. Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest \ v. Jerome K. Jerome, Three Men in a Boat \ 6. The Twentieth Century \ i. George Bernard Shaw \ ii. Stella Gibbons, Cold Comfort Farm \ iii. Beckett, Waiting for Godot \ iv. Kingsley Amis, Lucky Jim \ v. Malcolm Bradbury, The History Man \ vi. Helen Fielding, Bridget Jones's Diary \ Notes \ Works Cited - On the Comic \ Works Cited - General \ Index.

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