The Neo Classical Age

The Neo-classical Age:

Heenaba ZalaDept. of English

M. K. Bhavnagar University

Characteristics of the age:

• The Historical background:• The Rise of the Political Parties:• The Foreign War: The war of the Spanish Succession• The Succession: The act of settlement in 1701• The Spirit of the Age: • Stability• Wealth and prosperity• The evils of industrialization had not yet been

realized.

Prose:

• Swift, Addison, Steele, Defoe- prose writers of a very high quality.

• Political writing• The Clubs and Coffee-houses• Periodical writing

Jonathan Swift:

• The Battle of the Books: 1704• The first noteworthy book• The theme of the book is the dispute between

ancient and modern author• Half allegorical and mock-heroic setting• The battle is in the library. • A Tale of a Tub:• Written in 1696 and published in 1704• Religious allegory

• The story of three brothers, Peter, who stands for the Roman Catholic Church, Jack represents the Dissenters, and Martin, the personification of the Anglican and Lutheran Churches.

• A Modest Proposal:• Published in 1729• Gulliver’s Travels:• Published in 1726• Divided into four parts• An allegory• Swift as a satirist

Addition and Steel:• On April 12, 1709, Steel published the first number

of The Tatler, a periodical. It finished on January 1711.

• Addison contributed in the work.• Steel began The Spectator, which was issued daily. • Total number of essays 555• Addison wrote 274 and Steel wrote 236.• The Guardian, 175 in total and Addison contributed

51. • A very famous character of Sir Roger de Coverley in

Coverley paper.

Daniel Defoe:• Robinson Crusoe: 1719• Moll Flanders: 1722• The full title of Moll Flanders gives an apt summary of

the plot: "The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders, Etc. Who was born in Newgate, and during a life of continu'd Variety for Threescore Years, besides her Childhood, was Twelve Year a Whore, five times a Wife (whereof once to her own brother), Twelve Year a Thief, Eight Year a Transported Felon in Virginia, at last grew Rich, liv'd Honest and died a Penitent. Written from her own Memorandums."

• Both are picaresque novels dealing with different issues of society

Poetry:

• Jonathan Swift:• Cadenus and Vanessa (1712-13)• Vanessa is Esther Vanhomrigh : Cadenus is Swift.• Fond of using octosyllabic couplet• a. A line of verse containing eight syllables.• b. A poem having eight syllables in each line.• A word of eight syllables

• Joseph Addison:• The Campaign (1704)• Written in heroic couplet:• Heroic couplet is a traditional form of English poetry,

commonly used for epic and narrative poetry.• Alexander Pope:• An Essay on Criticism (1711)• Didactic poem• Windsor Forest (1713)• The Rape of the Lock (1712) brought him fame as a

poet.

• Pope also published philosophical poems and the most famous of all is An Essay on Man. This poem discusses about man’s place of universe.

• An Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot (1735)• Most direct autobiographical work• Addressed to his friend John Arbuthnot

The Age of Transition:

• Samuel Johnson:• London (1738) poem• The poem describes the various problems of London,

including an emphasis on crime, corruption, and the squalor of the poor.

• The poem begins: Though grief and fondness in my breast rebel,When injured Thales bids the town farewell,

Yet still my calmer thoughts his choice commend,I praise the hermit, but regret the friend,

Resolved at length, from vice and London far,To breathe in distant fields a purer air,And, fixed on Cambria's solitary shore,Give to St David one true Briton more.

• Dictionary (1747-55) brought him fame• The Vanity of Human Wishes: (1749), poem

Let Observation with extensive View,Survey Mankind from China to Peru;

Remark each anxious Toil, each eager Strife,And watch the busy scenes of crouded Life;

Then say how Hope and Fear, Desire and Hate,O'erspread with Snares the clouded Maze of Fate,Where Wav'ring Man, betray'd by vent'rous Pride,

To tread the dreary Paths without a Guide;As treach'rous Phantoms in the Mist delude,

Shuns fancied Ills, or chases airy Good.

• Johnson’s prose:• The Lives of the Poets in 1777-81, introduction of the

lives of 52 poets• The Rambler is a periodical, 1750-52• Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia, 1759, in order to pay

for his mother’s funeral. • A journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, 1775, a

travel book.

• Oliver Goldsmith:• The Traveller, 1764, a poem• The Deserted Village, 1770, a poem• The Hermit, a ballade• Elegy on the Death of a Mad Dog, witty • Drama: two prose comedies:• The Good Natur’d Man, 1768• She Stoops to Conquer, 1773• Prose:• The Citizen of the World, 1759• The Vicar of Wakefield, 1766, novel

• Thomas Gray:• Ode on a Distance Prospect of Eton College, 1747• Elegy written in a Country Churchyard, 1751• Pindaric Odes, 1757• William Blake:• Poetical Sketches, 1783• Songs of Innocence, 1789• The Book of Thel, 1790• The French Revolution, 1791, and America, 1793,

show the contemporary political conflict-about political freedom and also freedom from the restrictions of convention and established morality.

• Songs of Experience, 1794• The First Book of Urizen, 1794• The Book of Ahania, 1795• The Book of Los, 1795• The Song of Los, 1795

Four Wheels of novels:

• Samuel Richardson• Pamela or Virtue Rewarded, 1740• Clarissa Harlowe, 1747-48• Sir Charles Grandison, 1753-54• Henry Fielding• Joseph Andrews, 1742• Tom Jones, 1749, the greatest novel• Amelia, 1751, last novel

• Tobias Smollet• The Adventures of Roderick Random, 1748• The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle, 1751• The Adventures of Ferdinand, Count Fathom, 1753• The Adventures of Sir Launcelot Greaves, 1762• The Expedition of Humphry Clinker, 1771• Laurence Sterne• The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gent,

1760-67• A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy, 1768

• Richard Sheridan• The Rivals, 1774• The School for Scandal, 1777