The Establishment of Modern English Prose in the Reformation and the Enlightenment

by Ian Robinson

Ian Robinson traces the legacy of prose writing as a form theorized and propagated as an art distinct from verse. Engaging with histories of rhetoric as well as the work of the great prose writers in English, Robinson provides a bold reappraisal of this literary form, and shows that the formal construct of the sentence itself is historically conditioned and no older than the post-medieval world. The relationship between rhetorical style and literary meaning, Robinson argues, is at the heart of the way we understand the external world.

236 pages, Hardcover

First published January 28, 1998

About the author

Ian Robinson is a British literary critic and English professor. With David Sims, he co-founded Brynmill Press, a company devoted to publishing serious criticism.

His best-known works, such as The Survival of English, The English Prophets, and Holding the Centre, criticize the sloppy use of language and general incoherence in modern culture.