Domestic Politics And Family Absence

As Robert Sidney spent his career at the court of Queen Elizabeth, these letters are interesting not only for the substantial story they reveal of the writer and his wife (her letters have not survived) and their lives, but also for what they tell of life at the court, its politics, Sidney's relationship with Elizabeth (not always happy), and the heavy burden of life there for a courtier. The editors, Hannay (Siena College), Noel J. Kinnamon (Mars Hill College), and Michael G. Brennan (U. of Leeds, UK), provide an introduction to the collection as well as annotation of the letters. The letters are presented in slightly modernized form (spelling is regularized and abbreviations noted but expanded to full words) and are accessible to the student as well as the scholar. Annotation c2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Margaret P. Hannay, Noel J. Kinnamon and Michael G. Brennan have together edited The Collected Works of Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of Pembroke for the Oxford English Texts Series (Oxford UP, 1998) and a modern-spelling edition for students and general readers, Selected Works of Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of Pembroke (MRTS, forthcoming). They are currently editing The Correspondence of Rowland Whyte and Robert Sidney, first Earl of Leicester. Margaret Hannay, Professor of English at Siena College, is the author of Philip's Phoenix: Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke (Oxford UP, 1990), editor of Silent but for the Word: Tudor Women as Patrons, Translators, and Writers of Religious Works (Kent State UP, 1985), and editor, with Susanne Woods, of Teaching Tudor and Stuart Women Writers (MLA, 2000). Michael G. Brennan is Professor of Renaissance Studies at the University of Leeds, is the author of Literary Patronage in the English Renaissance: The Pembroke Family (Routledge, 1988) and has edited Lady Mary Wroth's Love's Victor: The Penshurst Manuscript (Roxburghe Club, 1988). With Noel Kinnamon he has published A Sidney Chronology: 1554-1654 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2003) and has has published extensively on Renaissance travel writings.