Short Fiction of the Seventeenth Century

This lively collection of short fiction introduces the modern reader to the remarkable variety of fictional forms that flourished in England before the advent of the novel.

The anthology is compiled by Charles C. Mish, a leading authority on English seventeenth-century fiction, and contains ten pieces published between 1609 and 1700. In addition to a beast fable, an anti-romance, and a utopian fantasy, Mr. Mish includes and comments on: a moral tale, in which just retribution is visited upon the wicked; a "jest-biography," or jest-book cum biography forming a satirical roman a clef; and a frame story imitating Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.