This student guidebook offers a clear introduction to an often complex and unwieldy area of literary studies. Tracing epic from its ancient and classical roots through postmodern and contemporary examples this volume discusses:

• a wide range of writers including Homer, Vergil, Ovid, Dante, Chaucer, Milton, Cervantes, Keats, Byron, Eliot, Walcott and Tolkien


• texts from poems, novels, children’s literature, tv, theatre and film


• themes and motifs such as romance, tragedy, religion, journeys and the supernatural.

Offering new directions for the future and addressing the place of epic in both English-language texts and World Literature, this handy book takes you on a fascinating guided tour through the epic.