age of reason prose
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Authors of the period
Daniel Defoe
Jonathan Swift
Samuel Richardson
Henry Fielding Laurence Sterne
Oliver Goldsmith
Fanny Burney Samuel Johnson
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Daniel Defoe
1660-1731
Remembered primarily for his novels
Works: Robinson Crusoe
Moll FlandersRoxana
Intention behind works: for readers to regard them
as true, not as fictions Deliberately avoids fine writing, so reader should
concentrate on series of plausible events
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Jonathan Swift
1667-1745
Greatest prose writer of 1st part or perhaps wholecentury
Great humorist and savage satirist
Dean of St Patricksin Dublin
Greatest works: A tale of a Tub
Gulliverstravels
Skillful in verse as well as in prose, and his influencecontinues (James Joyce, Aldous Huxley, GeorgeOrwell)
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GulliversTravels
Hides much of its satire so cleverly children stillread it as a fairy story
Starts off by making fun of mankind (and especially
England and English politics)in a quite gentlemanner
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Religious writing
1st part of the century: religious and philosophicalworks refelecting the new rationalspirit
Deists: attempt to strip Christianity of its mysteries
and to establish an almost Islamic conception of God In their view, this conception is a product of reason,
not of faith
William Law and Isaac Watts: stressed importance of
pure faith, even mysticism, in religion
Joseph Butler: used reason to affirm truths ofestablished Christianity
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Religious writing
Bishop Berkeley: did not believe matter had any realexistence apart from mind
Things ultimately exist in Godsmind, not of
themselves
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Samuel Richardson
1689-1761
Professional printer who took to novel writing whenhe was fifty
Works: Pamela Clarissa Harlowe
Sir Charles Grandison
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Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded
Novel in the form of a series of letters (epistolary)
It should implant a moral lesson in readers minds
(conceived readers as female)
Describes assaults made on the honour of a virtuoushousemaid by an unscrupulous young man
Pamela clings to code of honour
Her reward: marriage to her would-be-seducer
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Charles Grandison
According to burgess, this novel is inferior to theother two
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Henry Fielding
1707-54
Greatest novelist of century according to Burgess
Works: Joseph Andrews
Jonathan Wild Tom Jones
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Joseph Andrews
Started as parody of Pamela
Genre: picaresque : term originally applicable only tonovels where the leading character is a rogue
Bulk of the action takes place on the road, on ajourney, in which eccentric and low-life charactersappear
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Jonathan Wild
Truly picaresque novel
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Tom Jones
Fieldingsmasterpiece
Picaresque elements: theme of the journey occupiesgreater part of novel
More accurate to describe it as mock-epic Bulk and largeness of conception expected from an
epic
Its style sometimes parodies Homer
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Laurence Sterne
Most famous work: Tristam Shandy:
breaks rules of language and punctuation
excludes all suggestions of a plot
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Oliver Goldsmith
Contributed to development of English novel
Works: The Vicar of Wakefield:
sentimental and humorous country idyll
She Stoops to Conquer
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Adam Smith
Economist
The Wealth of Nations (1776) : brilliance of style,first book on Economics
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Fanny Burney
1752-1840
One of the first female writers
Novels: Evelina
CeciliaRealistic, humorous, full of credible
characters
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Influential Thinker: Jean Jacques Rousseau
1712-78
One of the forerunners of Romantic movement
One of prophets of French Revolution
Advocated a return to nature: in the natural stateman is happy and good. Society, by making lifeartificial, produces evil
Doctrine of the noble natural man
Works: Emile
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Gothic novels
Term: primarily architectural, denoting Europeanbuildings flourishing in Middle Ages
Gothic buildings suggested: mystery, romance, revolt
against classical order, wildness, throughassociations with medieval ruins
Gothic authors: Ann Radcliffe
Horace Walpole
Matthew Gregory Lewis
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Horace Walpole
The Castle of Otranto (1764)
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Ann Radcliffe
The Romance of the Forest
The Mysteries of Udolpho
The Italian
Skillfully written, mysteries always have rationalexplanation at the end
Never offends conventional morality
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Matthew Gregory Lewis
Works: The Monk: devils, horror, torture,perversions, magic, and murder
Short-lived popularity
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Mary Shelley
(1797-1851)
Frankenstein: work produced a good deal later
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Dr Samuel Johnson
1709-84 Seems to dominate Augustan age
Works:
Attempted most literary forms of the age: drama,poetry, the novel (Rasselas), the moral essay (TheRambler, the Idler). Also: sermons, prayers,meditations, biography (The lives of the poets),dedications, prologues, speeches
Dictionary of the English Language
Critical writings