Handel’s Oratorios and Eighteenth-Century Thought

'If ever there was a body of work which needed a fresh look, surely this is it, and this is what Ruth Smith offers in her lively and challenging book.' Musical Times

'This is a book which, like the oratorios themselves, will both delight and instruct, bringing a new and fuller understanding of what those extraordinary works meant to their first audiences.' Kenneth Nott Musical Times

'... a wealth of potential meaning is uncovered here which will enrich the work of future scholars.' Early Music Review

'Ruth Smith's stimulating and instructive study of Handel's Oratorios and Eighteenth-Century Thought offers a sweeping recontextualization of the repertory for which Handel is best known ... demonstrates the potential rewards of a truly crossdisciplinary study of Handel's oeuvre that takes into account the immensely dynamic world in which he lived. We can hope future studies will, like this one, draw on aesthetics, history, literature, politics, religion, and of course music to explore the full contexts and meanings of Handel's works.' Eighteenth-Century Studies

'... highly interesting and suggestive book.' British Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies