Summary: | This thesis offers a critical examination of the works of Richard Head (1637-1686), a writer struggling to cater to popular demand in a period before the independent profession of letters became financially viable. Head's life and works have previously been neglected and no complete account or bibliography exists. A biography together with all the evidence about his life, introduces a discussion in order of publication of each of his fourteen extant works, with attention ,to previously unnoticed sources, to genre, social background, literary quality and influence. A bibliography of all the editions of Head's works published during his life-time, together with a list of all books consulted in preparing the thesis is appended.
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