The Fabulous Dark Cloister Romance in England After the Reformation

A fresh appraisal of the romance in post-Reformation England, presenting this genre as the site of contested Protestant and Catholic influences and reading practices... Werth enriches scholarship on the religious dimensions of early-modern culture and on romance literature particularly. Choice 2012 The payoff in this smart and convincing study is a rich sense of how deeply these four authors wrestled with their genre's Catholic past. The "ongoing, incomplete reformation" that this study finds in literary and religious culture will influence future scholarship on these and other literary romances. -- Steve Mentz Renaissance Quarterly 2012