King Henry V: A Critical Reader

Arden Early Modern Drama Guides offer students and academics practical and accessible introductions to the critical and performance contexts of key Elizabethan and Jacobean plays. Essays from leading international scholars give invaluable insight into the text by presenting a range of critical perspectives, making the books ideal companions for study and research.

Key features include:
Essays on the play’s critical and performance history
A keynote essay on current research and thinking about the play
A selection of new essays by leading scholars
A survey of resources to direct students’ further reading about the play in print and online

This volume offers a thought-provoking guide to King Henry V, surveying the play’s rich critical and performance history, with a particular emphasis on its reputation in France as well as Britain and the US. A chapter on non-Anglophone reactions to the play, alongside new essays on British identity, religion, medieval warfare and the questioning of Henry V’s heroism, open up ground-breaking perspectives on the play. The volume also includes discussions of King Henry V’s rich theatrical and filmic heritage, and a guide to learning and teaching resources and how these might be integrated into effective pedagogic strategies in the classroom.

Karen Britland is Professor of Early Modern Literature at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA.

Line Cottegnies is Professor of English Literature at Sorbonne Université, France.

Other Contributors: John Drakakis (University of Stirling, UK), Sarah Hatchuel (Université Le Havre Normandie, France), Christopher Ivic (Bath Spa University, UK), James D. Mardock (University of Nevada, USA), Anne-Marie Miller-Blaise (Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, France), Elizabeth Pentland (York University, Canada), Laura Seymour (Bath Spa University, UK), Emma Smith (University of Oxford, UK), Christine Sukic (Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne, France), Gisèle Venet (Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, France), Gillian Woods (Birkbeck, University of London, UK)

Series Editors: Andrew Hiscock (Bangor University, UK) and Lisa Hopkins (Sheffield Hallam University, UK)