This book traces the history of the Annunciation, exploring the deep and lasting impact of the event on the Western imagination. Waller explores the Annunciation from its appearance in Luke's Gospel, to its rise to prominence in religious doctrine and popular culture, and its gradual decline in importance during the Enlightenment.

Gary Waller is Professor of Literature and Cultural Studies at Purchase College, SUNY. He taught as Donaldson Bye Fellow at Magdalene College, Cambridge and at the Universities of Auckland, Dalhousie, Wilfrid Laurier, Carnegie Mellon and Hartford. Recent books include The Virgin Mary in late Medieval and Early Modern Literature and Popular Culture (2011) and Walsingham and the English Imagination (2011).