Joy is an experience of reunion or fulfilment, of desire at least temporarily laid to rest, of a good thing that comes to pass or seems sure to happen soon. In this wide-ranging and highly original book Adam Potkay explores the concept of joy, distinguishing it from related concepts such as happiness and ecstasy. He goes on to trace the literary and intellectual history of joy in the Western tradition, from Aristotle, the Bible and Provencal troubadours through contemporary culture, centring on British and German works from the Reformation through Romanticism. Describing the complex interconnections between literary art, ethics, and religion, Potkay offers fresh readings of Spenser, Shakespeare, Fielding, Schiller, English Romantic poets, Wilde and Yeats. Winner of the 2009 Harry Levin prize, The Story of Joy will be of special interest to scholars of the Renaissance to the late Romantic period, but will also appeal to readers interested in the changing perceptions of joy over time. "With The Story of Joy, Adam Potkay has written a deep and humane book, a work of impressive learning and intellectual agility that is at once challenging, sophisticated and a pleasure to read." -Darrin McMahon, Florida State University, Review of English Studies "Beautifully written, with verve as well as precision, Adam Potkay's The Story of Joy examines the changing meanings and fortunes of the concept of joy in history, literature, and film. Offering a substantial and scholarly treatment of a neglected topic, this book is also quirky, interesting, and a real pleasure to read. Its arguments are clear and cogent, and it makes very helpful discriminations between related affective states. The author deserves to be congratulated for an important, genuinely illuminating contribution to the study of emotion as well as literary history." -Jonathan Culler "...Potkay's best book yet. Its attention to the role of religion in the narrative of a neglected Western key-word comes as both a welcome surprise and an unusual development in the brash young discipline of cultural philology. May this mature scholar's fourth monograph soon appear." --Richard Brantley, University of Florida: The Wordsworth Circle "An excellent work that I highly recommend." The Scriblerian, Robert G. Walker A highly original and hugely enjoyable literary and cultural history of joy from ancient times to the present.