Liberty and love: English literature and society, 1640-88

The latter half or the seventeenth century was a time of great social and political upheaval, reflected in the literature of the period in a way which is often bewildering to the modern reader. Choosing two themes which greatly occupied contemporary writers - the state as an enlarged family, and the family as a state in miniature - Peter Malekin brings both critical insight and recent research in social history to bear on a rich variety of seventeenth century literature.