The document provides an overview of 18th century English literature. It was divided into two ages: the Age of Pope from 1700-1750 and the Age of Johnson from 1740-1800. The Age of Pope saw the rise of political parties and prose writing, with prominent authors including Alexander Pope, Jonathan Swift, and Joseph Addison. The Age of Johnson saw commercial and imperial expansion, as well as transitions including new philosophies and realism. Major authors of this time included Samuel Johnson, Oliver Goldsmith, and Edmund Burke. Across both periods, poetry, non-fiction, drama, and the novel emerged as major genres. Daniel Defoe, Samuel Richardson, and Henry Fielding were among the pioneering novelists who helped

1. 18th Century Literature :
An Overview

2. 1660-1780
• Age of Enlightenment
• Age of Sensibility
• Neoclassical Age
• Augustan Age &
• “The Long 18th Century”

3. 18th Century
Age of Pope (1700-50) Age of Johnson (1740-1800)

4. Age of Pope
Historical Background:-
 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

5. Alexander Pope
Jonathan Swift
Sir Richard Steele
Daniel Defoe
Joseph Addison
Mathew Prior
John Gay
Edward Young

6. Age of Johnson
The Historical Background:-
o Decline of the party feud
o Commercial and imperial expansion
o The French Revolution
The Transition Age
 The Double Tendency
 The New Romanticism
 The New Learning
 The New Philosophy
 Growth of Historical Research
 The New Realism
 The Decline of Political Writing

7. 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

8. Poetry
Non Fiction
Drama
Fiction
NOVEL!

9. 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

10. 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)

11. 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)

12. 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)

13. 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)

14. 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)

15. Edmund Burke (1729-97)
• ‘On American Taxation’ (1774)
• ‘Conciliation with America’
(1775)
Historian
Edward Gibbon (1737 - 94)
 The History of the Decline and
Fall of the Roman Empire -
Published in six volumes between
1776 and 1788.

16. 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’

17. Alexander Pope(1688-1744)
The Heroic Couplet
• The Rape of the Lock
• Epistle to Dr Arthubnot
• The Dunciard
• Essay on Man
• Windsor Forest

19. James Thomson(1700-48)
• Epic poem : ’The Seasons ’
(1726-30)
• Spring
• Summer
• Autumn
• Winter
• ‘Castle of Indolence’ (1748)

20. 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

21. John Dyer (1699-1757)
• ‘The Fleece’
• ‘Grongar Hill’ (1726)
Robert Burns(1759-96)
O my Luve's like a red, red rose
That’s newly sprung in June;
O my Luve's like the melodie
That’s sweetly play'd in tune.

22. 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

23. Henry Fielding
Social Satire :-
oThe Careless Husband (1732)
oThe Universal Gallant (1735)
Political Satire :-
o Mock Doctor (1732)
o The Historical Register for 1736 (1737)
The Tragedy of Tragedies; or, the Life and
Death of Tom Thumb the Great (1730)

24. RB Sheridan
“ Comedy of Character”
 The School for Scandal (1777)
 The Critic (1779)
 The Duenna (1775)
 The Rivals (1775)

25. 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)

26. Oliver Goldsmith
• ‘ The Good Natur’dman
• ‘She Stoops to Conquer’
(Class tensions)
John Gay
Farce
• ‘The Beggar's Opera’ (1728)
• ‘Achillies’

27. 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

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

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

30.  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)

31. 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)

32. References:-
Albert, Edward.History of English
Literature .
Nayar,Pramod K. A Short History of English Literature