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Anthology of Elizabethan Prose Fiction

These five works — George Gascoigne's «The Adventures of Master F. J»; John Lyly's «Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit»; Robert Greene's «Pandosto. The Triumph of Time»; Thomas Nashe's «The Unfortunate Traveller» and Thomas Deloney's «Jack of Newbury» — represent Elizabethan fiction at its best. «The Adventures of Master F. J.» is a comedy of manners with a sting in its tail. In «Euphues» John Lyly invented a new, elaborate rhetorical style which delighted its Elizabethan audience and has been praised or parodied ever since. «Pandosto» was Shakespeare's source for «The Winter's Tale», but Greene's is a darker story designed to shock the reader accustomed to romantic conventions. «The Unfortunate Traveller» marks the peak of Nashe's gift for literary pastiche, mixing picaresque narrative with mock-historical fantasy. «Jack of Newbury» dedicated to 'All famous cloth Workers in England', sums up important social contradictions in sharply observed comic scenes and brisk, witty dialogue.