Description: Matthew Arnold praised Dryden's poetry for inaugurating an age of prose; what he might better have appreciated is Dryden's creation of modern prose itself. This is the only stand-alone edition of Dryden's prose available; it introduces and annotates texts that honour the orthography and accidentals of first and early editions, distilling earlier commentary and presenting fresh interpretations of his work. The clarity, nuance, and ease of Dryden's voice in prose distinguish his writing from the first pages of The Essay of Dramatick Poesie to the beautiful cadences of the Preface to Fables at the end of his career. Dryden's poetry and drama are widely available and appreciated, yet his prose has been difficult of access. That writing, its many pleasures, and its importance in creating the prose of the modern world are here restored to view for contemporary readers.
Brief description: Steven N. Zwicker is Stanley Elkin Professor Emeritus at Washington University, St Louis. He has written widely on early modern poetry and politics, and worked collaboratively with historians and literary critics. As well as editing Dryden previously (Selected Poems, 2001, and 21st-Century Oxford Authors: John Dryden, 2020), he has edited the Cambridge Companions to English Literature, 1650-1750 (1998), John Dryden (2004), and Andrew Marvell (2011); a volume on Lord Rochester with Matthew Augustine; and, with Derek Hirst, Andrew Marvell: Orphan of the Hurricane (2012).