Abstract
The ‘literary coterie’ is hard to pin down; it is a term often used to describe groups that share little with one another in ‘member, joint, or limb,/Or substance’.1 In practical terms, ‘coterie’ does not enjoy the ease of everyday usage available to formulations like ‘circle’, ‘group’, or the eminently modern ‘network’. The term ‘coterie’ has aroused some suspicion among critics. In the introduction to her landmark anthology, Helen Gardner distinguishes between the worst and the best of metaphysical poetry:
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Bowers, W., Crummé, H.L. (2016). Introduction. In: Bowers, W., Crummé, H. (eds) Re-evaluating the Literary Coterie, 1580–1830. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-54553-4_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-54553-4_1
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