Hudibras (Volume Ii)

By Samuel Butler, Samuel Butler, George Russell Wasserman

Book Overview

Ride into the Restoration with a grin - and feel the sting beneath the laughter. In Hudibras (Volume II), Samuel Butler sharpens his famous satirical narrative poem into a glittering weapon against zealotry and cant. Wit cuts deeper than steel. Written in the wake of the upheavals of 17th century England, this mock-heroic verse romance turns the high style of chivalric epic on its head, using brisk rhymes and barbed comparisons to expose puritan hypocrisy satire, English Civil War satire, and religious sectarian satire at close range. Volume II deepens the joke, widening the target from personal pretension to the politics of conscience, and showing how easily piety becomes performance. Each episode lands like a punchline, then lingers as critique today. Butler's comedy is muscular and intelligent: quick enough for a casual reader who wants story-driven mischief, and rich enough for devotees of classic English satiric poetry who relish the craft of line, rhythm, and argument. As an unabridged classic poetry volume, it belongs on the shelf of any classic satire collection that values laughter with teeth. Hudibras helped define Restoration era literature and set a template later refined in John Dryden satire and, more famously, in the Alexander Pope mock-epic; its mock-heroic method still feels modern in its impatience with sham virtue and noisy certainty. Republished by Alpha Editions in a careful modern edition, this volume preserves the spirit of the original while making it effortless to enjoy today - a heritage title prepared for readers and collectors alike.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 9354503896
• ISBN13: 9789354503894
• Release Date: March 2021
• Publisher: Alpha Edition
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 1.24 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.0" x 9.0"