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John Donne
In the Shadow of Religion
By: Andrew Hadfield
256 Pages
- Hardcover
- ISBN: 9781789143935
- Published By: Reaktion Books
- Published: April 2021
$15.95
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John Donne: In the Shadow of Religion explores the life of one of the most significant figures of the English Renaissance. The book not only provides an overview of Donne’s life and work, but connects his writing and thinking to the ideas, institutions and networks that influenced him.
The book shows how Donne’s faith underpinned his career, from aspirational courtier to phenomenally successful clergyman and preacher, when he became dean of St. Paul’s Cathedral. Donne emerges as a figure obsessed with himself, tormented by the fear that his transgressions may have condemned him to eternal damnation.
This fine new account uses Donne’s correspondence, writing and poetry to give a rounded portrait of a bold, experimental thinker, who was never afraid of taking risks that few others would have countenanced.
Andrew Hadfield is professor of English at the University of Sussex. He is the author of a number of works on early modern literature and culture, including Lying in Early Modern Culture (2017), Edmund Spenser: A Life (2012) and Shakespeare and Republicanism (2005).