Is the pastoral dead? Gifford adds fuel to the fiery debate in this lively examination of contemporary and classical nature writing. He begins by clarifying the different uses of "pastoral" and tracing the history of the genre from its classical origins in the poetic dialogues of supposed shepherds, to the Elizabethan dramas such as The Winter's Tale, through the pastoral poetry of Pope and Wordsworth, to the more recent rural novels and contemporary American nature writing. Including pastoral and antipastoral texts, the book traces the pastoral impulse of retreat and return with close readings of quoted texts, cultural studies, and ecocriticism.