A Companion to Shakespeare's Sonnets [Paperback]

• An authoritative reference guide and extended introduction to Shakespeare’s sonnets.
• Contains more than 20 newly-commissioned essays by both established and younger scholars.
• Considers the form, sequence, content, literary context, editing and printing of the sonnets.
• Shows how the sonnets provide a mirror in which cultures can read their own critical biases.
• Informed by the latest theoretical, cultural and archival work.

Notes on Contributors viii

Acknowledgments xii

Introduction 1

PART I Sonnet Form and Sonnet Sequence 13

1 The Value of the Sonnets 15
Stephen Booth

2 Formal Pleasure in the Sonnets 27
Helen Vendler

3 The Incomplete Narrative of Shakespeare’s Sonnets 45
James Schiffer

4 Revolution in Shake-speares Sonnets 57
Margreta de Grazia

PART II Shakespeare and His Predecessors 71

5 The Refusal to be Judged in Petrarch and Shakespeare 73
Richard Strier

6 “Dressing old words new”? Re-evaluating the “Delian Structure” 90
Heather Dubrow

7 Confounded by Winter: Speeding Time in Shakespeare’s Sonnets 104
Dympna Callaghan

PART III Editorial Theory and Biographical Inquiry: Editing the lsS