The Development of the Sonnet: An Introduction

Rating:
Summary: Well Introduced
Review: This is a very fine book indeed, although with a somewhat misleading title: it should have been added (in a subtitle, perhaps) that it follows the development of the sonnet only in Italy and England: After a full discussion of its Italian origins and the devolopment to its "classical" form and its variants, and after a passing remark on its spreading through other European countries, it follows its way to England where it stays for the rest of the book (making some two thirds of its bulk), to examine, in detail, its devolopment from the first imitations of Petrarch to its English form, the sonnets of Sir Philip Sydney, the Elisabethan sequence-vogue, Spenser's sonnet, its highlight in the work of Shakespeare, to end with sonnets of Herbert, Drummond, and Milton. On it's way, Mr. Spiller more than fully justifies the subtitle of "An Introduction" he did give to its book - and, by the way, not much in the development of the form has been left out: as the Author notices, the only other variations in the form were the French rhyming scheme, of much less consequence than the English, and, again French, twelve-syllable line. Moreover, the book sports a fair amount of examples, and copious notes. No chance of regretting your investment: after three years of perusal, it's still among the chosen band by my writing desk, from where it only sometimes wonders off to my night-table.