"This book argues that critical tradition has obscured the mutually constitutive relation between the didactic mission of Renaissance epic and the pathos of the epic self." "Critics usually see Spenser and Milton either as poets dedicated to an autonomous aesthetic that dictates indulgence in pathos for its own sake, or as Christian moralists who subordinate pathos to the didactic demands of society. The Romantic tradition that stretches from Keats to Harold Bloom exemplifies the former option. Neo-Christian, reader response, and new historicist critics assert a contrary, but similarly unbalanced, view by choosing the didactic authority of social custom, tradition, or ideology over the pathos of subjectivity." "Resisting attempts to establish an absolute priority for either pathos or moralizing, David Mikics looks to the debate between subjective passions and didactic imperatives as a sign of the complex relation between literary creation and social norms. In a study that shies away from new historicist endorsements of the force of normative ideology, as well as late Romantic celebrations of the poetic self, the author finds that Spenser and Milton develop an innovative literary subjectivity under the pressure of the Reformation's moralizing aims." "Incorporating moral force within pathos would allow poetic passion to become a worthy and clearly justifiable public stance. But Spenser and Milton, in their pursuit of this rhetorical ideal, find themselves acknowledging, instead, an enduring disjunction between affect and the discursive forms of public morality which aim to discipline or exploit it."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

William Harrison Ainsworth (1805-1882) was an English historical novelist. His notable works include "The Lancashire Witches," Rookwood," and "The Star Chamber."

What would you do if you could restart your life? Qin Yunuan, the daughter of a concubine in a noble family, chooses to revenge. She has lost her mother, her beauty and her menial-like life, but the wife of his father and her half-blooded elder sister still do not let her go. The flame of fury drives the reborn girl to revenge. That is not an even road. What is facing her was the barrier of social class, the imperial power and the entangled love. A lily is turned into a Vileplume. Kinship, friendship and love drowns her, but she turns the corner over and over again. How would she revenge? Does the love can well comfort her scars on her heart? What would she choose between love and hatred?