Access the full text.
Sign up today, get DeepDyve free for 14 days.
References for this paper are not available at this time. We will be adding them shortly, thank you for your patience.
jan stievermann Universität Tübingen Writing ``To Conquer All Things'' Cotton Mather's Magnalia Christi Americana and the Quandary of Copia While he thus devoured books, it came to pass that books devoured him. --Cotton Mather, Magnalia Christi Americana Ever since its first publication in 1702, critics have regularly censured the Magnalia Christi Americana for being a vainglorious attempt at displaying the author's rhetorical brilliance and universal erudition. Mather's belated piece of colonial or ``Puritan Baroque'' (Warren 112) was often branded as an overly ornate conglomerate of learned references lacking in originality and coherence.1 Taking up arguments already used against Mather in his own time, the derogatory judgment which William Tudor, the first editor of the North American Review, passed on the book in 1818 probably left the most enduring mark. His caustic comment on the Magnalia's ``numerous quotations in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew which rise up like so many decayed, hideous stumps [. . .] to deform the surface,'' and his consequent disapproval of Mather as a ``pedantick, and garrulous writer'' have continued to reverberate through the negative responses of many readers well into the twentieth century (Tudor 256, 272).2 It is only during the last few decades that
Early American Literature – University of North Carolina Press
Published: Aug 11, 2004
Read and print from thousands of top scholarly journals.
Already have an account? Log in
Bookmark this article. You can see your Bookmarks on your DeepDyve Library.
To save an article, log in first, or sign up for a DeepDyve account if you don’t already have one.
Copy and paste the desired citation format or use the link below to download a file formatted for EndNote
Access the full text.
Sign up today, get DeepDyve free for 14 days.
All DeepDyve websites use cookies to improve your online experience. They were placed on your computer when you launched this website. You can change your cookie settings through your browser.