Review of David Colclough, Vol. III of OESJD

We are extremely pleased to report the appearance of the first book review of David Colclough's Volume III: Sermons Preached at the Court of Charles I. The review by Blair Worden has appeared in the London Review of Books, Vol. 36, No. 12, 19 June 2014, pages 31-34. The LRB can be purchased from most good bookshops and news agents, or accessed online (subscription only). 

Worden's extensive review situates Colclough's volume (and the edition more generally) widely within the reception history of Donne's works over the centuries, the history of editing Donne, and pays particular attention to the most recent confluence of 'Eng. Lit.' studies, the history of religion, and sermon scholarship. Worden praises Colclough's attention to historical context (a crucial principle that underpins the edition as a whole), especially since in much seventeenth-century scholarship 'the marriage of formal analysis, Eng. Lit.’s preserve, with contextual exploration remains elusive'. However, if the academic discplines remains distinct and if such a division 'would have puzzled Donne', still 'the readiness of literary critics to engage with historical scholarship has nonetheless yielded rich rewards. Colclough’s intensively researched volume exemplifies the benefits'.