Elizabeth Lee (5) (1857–1920)

The English Novel in the Time of Shakespeare - J. J. Jusserand
This was translated from French by Elizabeth Lee in 1893, three years after its publication and she took the opportunity to revise and enlarge the original. The first couple of chapters provide a history of the novel from the time of Beowulf through the Norman invasion of 1066 and up to the time of John Lyly in the 1570’s. There follows chapters on the major writers and their followers between 1580 and 1605.

Jusserand or Lee show more calls Lyly the father of the English novel and the chapter on his works and his influence is fairly good. I have read Lyly and so I can appreciate the criticism of his unique writing style. The following chapters are on Robert Greene and his followers, Sir Philip Sidney and his pastoral romance, Thomas Nashe and the picaresque and realist novels and finally the first half of the seventeenth century after Shakespeare (however this final chapter dismisses almost all of the English authors of this period)

This book would serve as a useful introduction to the major novelists of the late Elizabethan period, It showcases the most critically acclaimed novels by the authors, but it is not in any way exhaustive. Shakespeare is mentioned in the title and the book highlights possible source materiel for his plays, but again there is not much detail. A useful book: now free on the internet and I would rate it as 3 stars. show less