Anthology of Elizabethan Prose Fiction

These five works - George Gascoigne's The Adventures of Master F. The Triumph of Time; Thomas Nashe's The Unfortunate Traveller and Thomas Deloney's Jack of Newbury - represent Elizabethan fiction at its best. J; John Lyly's Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit; Robert Greene's Pandosto.

is a comedy of manners with a sting in its tail. The Adventures of Master F. J. In Euphues John Lyly invented a new, elaborate rhetorical style which delighted its Elizabethan audience and has been praised or parodied ever since.

Pandosto was Shakespeare's source for The Winter's Tale, but Greene's is a darker story designed to shock the reader accustomed to romantic conventions. The Unfortunate Traveller marks the peak of Nashe's gift for literary pastiche, mixing picaresque narrative with mock-historical fantasy. Jack of Newbury dedicated to 'All famous cloth Workers in England', sums up important social contradictions in sharply observed comic scenes and brisk, witty dialogue.

ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more. Readership: General; students of Elizabethan and Renaissance literature, general English literature college courses