The Devil Early Modern England. (Shorter Notices).

The Devil Early Modern England, by Darren Oldridge (Stroud: Sutton, 2001; pp. 216. 20 [pounds sterling]).

The Devil is in many respects a key character in early modern English history, yet so far no full-scale scholarly account of his significance has been written. This volume, while by no means comprehensive (as Oldridge says, it is a small book about an enormous subject), constitutes a useful introductory guide to this important if neglected topic. Oldridge's analysis is especially useful in demonstrating how concepts of the devil worked on a popular and a learned basis. The devil of the popular imagination, in the early modern period as in the Middle Ages, was an …