Contents

Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents v
3. Acknowledgments vii
4. Introduction: Writing in Solitude 1
5. 1. Lyric Futures: Hidden Ambitions in the Sidney-Pembroke Circle 20
6. 2. Nameless Orphans: Ambitious Poetry in an Age of Modesty 45
7. 3. The Peril of Understanding: Forms of Obscurity 69
8. 4. The Lure of Solitude: Melancholy and Eremitism as Literary Dispositions 100
9. 5. The Naked Sense of Retirement: Cowley, Marvell, Traherne 132
10. 6. Literary History in Isolation: Bacon, Hofmannsthal, and Historical Memory 169
11. Conclusion: Reading in Solitude 196
12. Notes 203
13. Bibliography 235
14. Index 253