Shakespeare's Sonnets: Critical Essays is the essential Sonnets anthology for our time. This important collection focuses exclusively on contemporary criticism of the Sonnets, reprinting three highly influential essays from the past decade and including sixteen original analyses by leading scholars in the field.

Table of Contents General Editor's Introduction, Illustrations, Preface, Contributor List Part I: Introduction Reading New Life into Shakespeare's Sonnets: A Survey of Criticism, Part II: Recent Essays on Shakespeare's Sonnets Editing as Cultural Formation: The Sexing of Shakespeare's Sonnets, Peter Stallybrass, The Scandal of Shakespeare's Sonnets, Margretta de Grazia, Incertanties now crown themselves assur'd: The Politics of Plotting Shakespeare's Sonnets, The Silent Speech of Shakespeare's Sonnets, George Wright, Part III. New Essays on Shakespeare's Sonnets Shakespeare's Petrarchism Gordon Braden, I am that I am: Shakespeare's Sonnets and the Economy of Shame Lars Engle, A dateless lively heat: Storing Loss in the Sonnets Joyce Sutphen, Politics, Heresy, and Martyrdon in Shakespeare Sonnet 124 and Titus Andronius John Klause, The Name of the Rose: Christian Figurality and Shakespeare's Sonnets Lisa Freinkel. What's the Use? Or, The Problematic of Economy in Shakespeare's Procreation Sonnets Peter Herman, Sonnets 71-74: Texts and Contexts Joseph Pequigney, The Matter of Inwardness: Shakespeare's Sonnets Michael Schoenfelt, The dyer's hand: The Reproduction of Coercion and Blot in Shakespeare's Sonnets Olga Valbuena, Playing the mother's part: Shakespeare's Sonnets and Early Modern Codes of Maternity Naomi Miller, Be Dark but Not Too Dark: Shakespeare's Lady as a Sign of Color Marvin Hunt, The Sonnets on Trial: Reconsidering The Portrait of Mr. W. H. Rebecca Larouche, I, You, He, She, and WE: On the Sexual Politics of Shakespeare's Sonnets Bruce Smith, Sex Without Issue: Sodomy, Reproduction, and Signification in Shakespeare's Sonnets Valerie Traub, That which thou hast done: Shakespeare's Sonnets and A Lover's Complaint Ilona Bell