Of all the poets of the Augustan age, John Dryden was the most worldly. Anthony Fowles traces Dryden’s evolution from ‘wordsmith’ to major poet.

This critical study shows a poet of vigour and technical panache whose art was forged in the heat and battle of a turbulent polemical and pamphleteering age. Although Dryden’s status as a literary critic has long been established, Fowles draws attention to Dryden’s neglected achievements as a translator of poetry. He deals also with the less well-known aspects of Dryden’s work – his plays and occasional pieces.

Born in London and educated at the Universities of Oxford and Southern California, Anthony Fowles began his career in filmmaking before becoming an author of film and television scripts and more than twenty books. Readers will welcome the many contemporary references to novels and film with which Fowles illuminates the life and work of this decisively influential English poetic voice.