Ben Jonson. - Review - book review

Contemporary Review, July, 2000

Ben Jonson. Richard Dutton, editor. Longman. [pound]13.99 p.b. 223 pages. ISBN 0-582-21506-4. This volume is part of Longman's 'Critical Readers' series in which a scholar gathers together in one manageable volume the latest literary criticism of a famous author. Here Professor Dutton prefaces his selection with a twenty-five page introduction in which he both sums up most of the writing on Jonson and gives his own views.

He argues that while Jonson tried to be a writer without reference to his own times, he is, in fact, deeply rooted in the 'early modem English culture he was helping to construct'. He gave to his age 'a voice and a literary definition'. There are eight essays here, ranging from an 'alternative view' of drama and society in Jonson's period, to examinations of various parts of Jonson's life and of various works including Volpone, Sejanus, The Alchemist and Bartholomew Fair.