18th Century Literature - An overview

18th Century Literature :

An Overview

• Age of Enlightenment

• Age of Sensibility

• Neoclassical Age

• Augustan Age &

• “The Long 18th Century”

1660-1780

18th Century

Age of Pope (1700-50) Age of Johnson (1740-1800)

Historical Background:-

Age of Pope

Rise of the political parties

The foreign war

The succession

The spirit of the age

Predominance of Prose

Political Writing

The Clubs and Coffee houses

Periodical writing

The New Publishing Houses

The New Morality

Alexander Pope

Jonathan Swift

Sir Richard Steele

Daniel Defoe

Joseph Addison

Mathew Prior

John Gay

Edward Young

Age of Johnson

The Historical Background:-o Decline of the party feud

o Commercial and imperial expansion

o The French Revolution

The Double Tendency

The New Romanticism

The New Learning

The New Philosophy

Growth of Historical Research

The New Realism

The Decline of Political Writing

The Transition Age

Samuel Johnson

William Blake

James Thomson

Samuel Richardson

Henry Fielding

Oliver Goldsmith

Thomas Gray

William Collins

William Cowper

Robert Burns

Edward Gibbon

Edmund Burke

Adam Smith

Richard Sheriden

Poetry

Non Fiction

Drama

Fiction

NOVEL!

Features of Non Fiction :-

Influenced by Montaigne and Francis Bacon Dealt mostly with morals and manners Served the purpose of social commentary Everyday life as theme Aim : To amuse while also providing

information and advice

Daniel Defoe

• His Journal : The Review• ‘Enquiry into the Occasional Conformity of

Dissenters’ (1698)• The True-Born Englishman(1701)• ‘Shortest way with Dissenters’ (1702)

Jonathan Swift

• A Tale of a Tub and The Battle of the Books• ‘A Proposal for Correcting, Improving and

Ascertaining the English Tongue’ (1712)• The Journal to Stella (1766-68)• A Modest Proposal for Preventing the

Children of Poor People from Being a Burthen to their Parents or Country (1729)

Dr Samuel Johnson(1704-84)

Reactionary Essay on Boswell’s life of Johnson Maker of the great Dictionary (1755) The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749) Periodical essays for The Rambler Rassels, Prince of Abyssinia (1759)

Bishop Joseph Butler(1692-1752) Adam Smith(1723-90)

• Analogy of Religion, Natural and Revealed (1736)

• Charge Delivered to the Clergy(1751)

• Theory of moral sentiments (1759)

• An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776)

Anthony Ashley Cooper (1671-1713)

Work: Characteristics of Men, Manners, Opinions and

Time

George Berkeley (1685-1753)

Work: Treatise concerning the Principles of Human

Knowledge (1710)

Periodical Essays

Joseph Addison (1672-

1719)

Entertaining and Educational

To educate and moralize people

‘The Spectator’ ‘The Tatler’

Social commentary , Satire

Richard Steele (1672-1729)

Eliza Haywood

‘ The Female Spectator’

( Feminine issues)

"prolific even by the standards of a prolific age"

(Blouch, intro 7)

Translated Virgil’s ‘Georgics’

The Christian Hero (1701)

Edmund Burke (1729-97)

• ‘On American Taxation’ (1774)• ‘Conciliation with America’

(1775)

Edward Gibbon (1737 - 94)

Historian

The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire -Published in six volumes between 1776 and 1788.

Features of Poetry:- Satire. Public and literary figures were targeted

‘Graveyard School ’ : obsessed with decay and death

Highly self-conscious, crafted and metrical, but used simple language

Less satiric poets used wit and gentle irony

Deep sense of humanism in Wartons, Goldsmith and Pope

Pastoral Influence in Wartons, Goldsmith and Gray

Infulence of Classical authors and learning : ‘Neo Classism’

Alexander Pope(1688-1744)

• The Rape of the Lock

• Epistle to Dr Arthubnot

• The Dunciard

• Essay on Man

• Windsor Forest

The Heroic Couplet

James Thomson(1700-48)

• Epic poem : ’The Seasons ’ (1726-30)

• Spring• Summer• Autumn• Winter

• ‘Castle of Indolence’ (1748)

Christopher Smart (1722-71)

‘’Kit Smart, ‘Kitty Smart’, ‘Jack Smart’

• A Song to David (1763)• Jubilate Agno

Thomas Percy (1729-1811)

• Reliques of Ancient English Poetry (1765)

11/23/2014

The Legend of King Arthur Barbara Allen's Cruelty King Arthur's Death Edward, Edward Sir Lancelot Du Lake The Bonny Earl of Murray Sweet William's Ghost The Boy and the Mantle The Marriage of Sir

Gawaine King Ryence's Challenge

John Dyer (1699-1757)

• ‘The Fleece’

• ‘Grongar Hill’ (1726)

Robert Burns(1759-96)

O my Luve's like a red, red roseThat’s newly sprung in June;O my Luve's like the melodieThat’s sweetly play'd in tune.

Features of Drama :-

Restoration comedies lost favor

Satires- Political ones

Sentimental Comedy, Domestic Comedy

More emphasis on plot

Wit continues to be the key element

Henry Fielding

Social Satire :-

o The Careless Husband (1732)

o The Universal Gallant (1735)

o Mock Doctor (1732)

o The Historical Register for 1736 (1737)

Political Satire :-

The Tragedy of Tragedies; or, the Life and

Death of Tom Thumb the Great (1730)

RB Sheridan

“ Comedy of Character”

The School for Scandal (1777) The Critic (1779) The Duenna (1775) The Rivals (1775)

Richard Steele• The Funeral (1701)• The Lying Lover(1703)• The Tender Husband(1705)

Colley Cibber (1671-1757)

• Love’s Last Shift (1696)• Careless Husband (1704)

Oliver Goldsmith

• ‘ The Good Natur’d man• ‘She Stoops to Conquer’

(Class tensions)

John Gay

• ‘The Beggar's Opera’ (1728)

• ‘Achillies’

Farce

Features of Fiction :-

Emphasis on sentiments and manners

Satiric exploration of human follies and

vices

Rise of Picaresque tradition (habits and

adventures of a Picaro or rogue)

Comic effects by idiosyncratic character

(unusual character)

The origins of Gothic sensibility

derived from medievalism

Social commentaries-popular-virtues

and moral failings

Structure experimentation by Laurence Sterne in ‘The Life and Opinions of Trisham Shandy’

Daniel Defoe

Robinson Crusoe(1719)Memoirs of a Cavalier (1720)Captain Singleton (1720)Journal of a Plague Year (1722)Moll Flanders (1724)Roxana (1724)

Laurance Sterne (1713-68)‘The Life and Opinions of Trisham Shandy’ (1759-67)

Henry Mackenzie(1745-1831 )‘Man of Feeling’ (1771)‘Man of the World’ (1773)

Samuel Richardson (1689-1761)‘Pamela’ (1740)‘Clarissa’ (1747-48)

Horace Walpole (1717-97)‘Castle of Otrando ’ (1764)

Jonathan Swift (1667-1745)‘The Battle of the Books’ (1696-98)‘Gulliver’s Travels’ (1726)

Henry Fielding ‘Shamela’ (1741)‘Tom Jones’ (1749)

Tobais Smolett‘The Adventures of Roderick Random’ (1748)‘ The Adventures of Ferdinand ‘’Fathom (1753)‘The Expedition of Humphrey Clinker (1771)

Oliver Goldsmith ‘The Vikar of Wakefield’ (1766)

Eliza Haywood‘The History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless (1751)’

Sarah Fielding‘David Simple’ (1744)‘The Governess’ (1749)

References:-

Albert, Edward. History of English

Literature.

Nayar,Pramod K. A Short History of English Literature