English Literature from the Restoration Through the Romantic Period (The Britannica Guide to World Literature)

242 Pages·2010·4.14 MB·English

by  J. e. Luebering

Published in 2011 by Britannica Educational Publishing
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First Edition
Britannica Educational Publishing
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J.E. Luebering: Senior Editor, Literature
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Introduction by Richard Barrington
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
English literature from the Restoration through the romantic period / edited by J.E.
Luebering.—1st ed.
p. cm.—(The Britannica guide to world literature)
“In association with Britannica Educational Publishing, Rosen Educational Services.”
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-61530-231-4 (eBook)
1. English literature—History and criticism. 2. English literature—Early modern,
1500-1700—History and criticism. 3. English literature—18th century—History and
criticism. 4. English literature—19th century—History and criticism. I. Luebering, J. E.
PR83.E63 2010
820.9—dc22
20090536472009045098
On the cover: Infl uential British writers from the Restoration through the Romantic
period include poet John Keats (foreground) and satirist Jonathan Swift (background). Time
& Life Pictures/Getty Images (Keats); Hulton Archive/Getty Images (Swift).
On page 8: Frontispiece to William Blake’s Europe, A Prophecy (1794), drawn by the author.
Peter Willi/Superstock/Getty Images
Pages 16 (map), 226, 228, 230, 232 © www.istockphoto.com/Nicolas Belton; pp. 16 (books), 17,
51, 134 © www.istockphoto.com
24
CONTENTS
Introduction 8
Chapter 1: Restoration
Literature 17
The Defeated
Republicans 20
Writings of the
Nonconformists 22
40
Writings of the Royalists 26
Major Genres and
Authors of the Period 27
Chroniclers 29
Diarists 30
The Court Wits 43
John Dryden 45
Heroic Play 46
Beast Fable 48
Drama by Dryden
and Others 49
70
Chapter 2: The 18th Century 51
Publication of Political
Material 52
Periodical Journalism 53
The Tatler and
The Spectator 55
Major Political Writers 58
Alexander Pope 59
Thomson, Prior,
and Gay 68
Swift 69 75
Shaftesbury and Others 78
Major Novelists 81
Daniel Defoe 81 87
Samuel Richardson 82
Epistolary Novel 89
Henry Fielding 90
Sarah Fielding 95
Tobias Smollett 96
Picaresque Novel 100
Laurence Sterne 102
Sentimental Novel 107
Fanny Burney 108
Poets and Poetry
after Pope 111
115
Robert Burns 113
Oliver Goldsmith 121
Samuel Johnson’s Poetry
and Prose 121
James Boswell 124
18th-Century Drama 126
Comedy of Manners 132
Chapter 3: The Romantic
Period 134
Poetry 134
126
The Lake Poets 137
The Major
Romantic Poets 137
Dorothy Wordsworth 154
Other Poets of the Early
Romantic Period 194
Table Talk 197
Other Poets of the
Later Period 197
The Novel 198
Gothic Novel 200
Mary Wollstonecraft 195
Sheley 202
Political Fiction 203
Women and 204
Prose Fiction 204
Sir Walter Scott 206
Discursive Prose 213
Charles Lamb 214
William Hazlitt 217
Thomas De Quincey 219
Drama 221
Sentimental Comedy 222
Patent Theatres 225
Epilogue 226
207
Glossary 228
Bibliography 230
Index 232
216
224
INTRODUCTION
7 Introduction 7
y the Restoration of the English monarchy in 1660,
BEnglish literature had achieved a wider popularity
than ever before among all classes of English society. It
had formed an identity that was distinctly English and,
at its best, earned a lasting appreciation that continues
to this day.
Works that had come before, by English authors such
as Chaucer and Shakespeare, are clearly of a different
time. There is a gulf that separates works of the Old and
Middle English periods from those of the present day,
and that gulf is apparent in language, style, form, and
content. English literature bridged this gulf, one author
at a time, largely over the period from the Restoration to
the start of the Victorian era. This book examines that
transformation, detailing how English literature bene-
fi ted from the infl uences that had gone before while also
developing in a manner that set the stage for the contem-
porary era. Readers also will delve deeply into the
personalities and lives of the authors of this period who,
beyond all else, brought a heightened sense of humanity
to English literature.
From the Restoration to the Victorian era, many of the
elements that readers associate with contemporary litera-
ture were fi rst introduced or refi ned by British authors.
The categories satire, political commentary, self-help,
romance, horror, memoir, and journalism—all of which
echo the sections found within any bookstore today—
came to fruition at this time. Although they continued to
struggle against disregard and disdain, women increas-
ingly joined men in the literary marketplace, with the end
of the 18th century witnessing a fl ourishing of women
writers. Most signifi cantly, what would become the most
popular form of literature during the 19th and 20th centu-
ries, the novel, emerged during this period.
9