ABSTRACT
John Parham's original title for The Environmental Tradition in English Literature was 'Muddying the Waters'. While such a label might not mean much to uninitiated readers, it does suggest the function served by this welcome new collection of essays, in further extending the reach and complexity of British ecocritical discussion. We have now moved into the second stage of ecocriticism in both the UK and the United States, after earlier calls for a new focus of critical attention upon the natural world in poetry, fiction, and essay were answered throughout the 1990s with an outpouring of books and articles, the creation of new curricular programmes in a number of universities, and the international spread of interest among scholars from many European and Asian countries beyond the English-speaking world. Ecocriticism has suddenly come into its own.
