The English literary tradition has been constituted as a patriarchal family. Great fathers are supposed to pass on a place to worthy sons. This book shows how k... » 

The English literary tradition has been constituted as a patriarchal family. Great fathers are supposed to pass on a place to worthy sons. This book shows how kinship and mentoring relationships between writers helped to form the national tradition. It features writers, such as Dryden, Congreve, Johnson, the Fieldings, the Wordsworths, and Austen. «