Charles Stanley Ross

Charles Stanley Ross is an American literary scholar, academic, and author. He is a professor emeritus of English and comparative literature and a former director of the comparative literature program at Purdue University.

Ross's work focuses on British literature. He has also conducted research encompassing the Italian romantic epic, literature and law, and world literature. He has authored several books including the first English translation of Matteo Maria Boiardo’s Orlando Innamorato, The Custom of the Castle from Malory to Macbeth, Elizabethan Literature and the Law of Fraudulent Conveyance: Sidney, Spenser, and Shakespeare, and a translation of Statius’ The Thebaid: Seven against Thebes.

Ross is the editor of the Parlor Press Renaissance and Medieval Series and a founding editor of Forum for World Literature Studies. In 2018, he released a video documentary on Sir Philip Sidney: Shakespeare’s Muse of Fire: Sir Philip Sidney. Previously he produced a series of on-line teaching videos titled First Lines: A Project in Global Diversity, that highlights the range of world literature.

Education Ross received his AB degree in English from Harvard College in 1971. He later studied English Language and Literature at University of Chicago and received his MA and PhD degrees in 1972 and 1976, respectively. He then studied law and earned his JD degree from Indiana University at Indianapolis in 1994.

The Custom of the Castle In 1997, Ross published The Custom of the Castle: From Malory to Macbeth, which focuses on odd instances of accepted behavior in medieval and Renaissance romances. The book was reviewed by J.S. Ryan as "a remarkable commentary on the power of legal fictions to (mis)-shape social behavior". According to Mishtooni Bose, "Ross's study has stimulating implications for a range of literature beyond the works to which he confines his discussion". J. B. Lethbridge stated that "the book broaches an excellent subject and raises important ideas both generally and in the reading of individual episodes."

In 2002, Elizabeth Fowler published a review stating that the "book will help us treat medieval and renaissance romance as intellectually serious stuff." According to Fowler, "Charles Ross has written an interesting and sometimes elegant book on the recurring literary phenomenon of romance encounters with castles that flaunt their own manners and laws".

Elizabethan Literature and the Law of Fraudulent Conveyance Ross's book Elizabethan Literature and the Law of Fraudulent Conveyance: Sidney, Spenser, and Shakespeare, published in 2003, focuses on the origins, impact, and outcome of the Elizabethan obsession with how to avoid paying debts and the new laws designed to protect creditors. The book was reviewed as "cogent, carefully researched contribution" that focused on "exploring the reasons that laws about fraudulent conveyance dominated English legal and literary discourses between 1571 and 1601."

The Thebaid: Seven against Thebes. By Publius Papinius Statius: A Translation Ross authored and published a translation of The Thebaid: Seven against Thebes in 2004. His work was recognized by Leslie Zakar Morgan as a "welcome addition to the book-shelf" and a "valuable contribution to a growing librmy of epic translation, commentary, and analysis in English," further saying that "Ross's Thebaid translation will draw those who desire further, in-depth study about the influence of Statius's work on Dante and other medieval and Renaissance writers".

Awards and honors 1974-1975: Fulbright-Hays Scholar in Italy 2002: Translation Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities 2013: The Book of Great Teachers, Purdue University