Dryden and Enthusiasm: Literature, Religion, and Politics in Restoration England

This book explores ideas of enthusiasm, or divine inspiration, in the works of the poet, dramatist, and literary critic John Dryden (1631-1700). Dryden has frequently been seen by critics to be a writer preoccupied by reason and order in both poetry and in society at large. By tracing his interest in enthusiasm and the way it allows him to think about how literature can break into areas of knowledge beyond normal human comprehension, this book offers a new view of a major 17th-century writer. It also examines the complex political and religious tensions implicit in Dryden’s interest in enthusiasm, which was, in the later 17th century, often viewed suspiciously as dangerous and radical.