Product Description

This authoritative edition was formerly published in the acclaimed Oxford Authors series under the general editorship of Frank Kermode. It brings together a unique combination of Donne's poetry and prose - all the major poems, complemented by rarely published letters and extracts from Donne's sermons - to give the essence of his work and thinking. John Donne (1572-1631) is today celebrated as one of the greatest of the metaphysical poets, whose verse was daringly original and whose use of imagery and conceits marked a new, intellectual approach to poetry. His Satires, Elegies, and Songs and Sonnets, which contain his most famous love poems, were complemented by his religious writing, both verse and prose. He was one of the most renowned preachers of his day, and this volume does equal justice to the full range of his work. In addition to nearly all his English poetry this volume includes over 130 extracts from Donne's sermons, as well as the full text of his last sermon, 'Death's Duel'. A distinguishing feature of the selection is that the works are arranged in the chronological order of their composition.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #155021 in Books
• Published on: 2008-11-13
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 528 pages

Customer Reviews

A supplement rather than replacement to other editions?
It's difficult to find a reliable and affordable edition of Donne: I've been using the Smith edition in Penguin (The Complete English Poems (Penguin Classics) since I was an undergraduate, but bought this as well because it includes a good selection of the non-poetic works: letters, sermons etc.

Carey is, of course, a well-recognised Donne scholar, but I can't help feeling that the idea of publishing Donne's works in purely chronological order, rather than organising it, is a bit gimmicky. So in this edition we get everything mixed up: satires interspersed with elegies, dedicatory sonnets, holy sonnets etc. Only the 'Songs and Sonnets' are put together, precisely because we don't know when they were written.

In the introduction, Carey discusses the problems of dating Donne's writings so this rather seems to undermine the very premise upon which the ordering is built...

I'm glad to find Donne's non-poetic writings in an affordable edition and Oxford should be applauded for that. But for reading and working on the poetry I'm afraid I'll be returning to the Smith.