The Eighteenth Century
Subtitle: the Context of English Literature
Series: Routledge Library Editions: 18th Century Literature Ser; Routledge library editions
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2020
Place of publication: Milton
Language: eng
Number of pages: 281
ISBN-13: 9781000030921; 9781003010173; 9781000031089; 9781000031003; 9780367445263
Subjects: English literature; History and criticism; Civilization; Littérature anglaise; Histoire et critique; Civilisation; LITERARY CRITICISM; General
Description: The aim of this book, originally published in 1978, is to make the reading of literary classics such as Gulliver's Travels, Robinson Crusoe, Tom Jones, The Beggar's Opera and Tristram Shandy an even richer experience by giving them an intelligible place in history. The context' is seen not as a vague backcloth, but as a living fabric of ideas and events which animate Augustan literature. The authors cover the achievements of men like Hume, Walpole, Chippendale, Newton and Reynolds, who are often merely names to the literary student, and show how writers were affected by exciting developments in psychology, aesthetics, medicine and other fields. As a whole the book shows this period to have been an active, questing and complex era, whose literary masterpieces emanate from a rich and diverse culture.
Table of contents: title: Cover; title: Half Title; title: Title Page; title: Copyright Page; title: Original Title Page; title: Original Copyright Page; title: Contents; title: Illustrations; title: Table of dates; title: 1 Introduction: the writer and society; title: The cultural map; title: The literary public; title: The literary forms; title: The Augustan prospect; title: Select bibliography; title: 2 Politics; title: The reign of Anne; title: The age of Walpole; title: From Chatham to the Younger Pitt; title: Select bibliography; title: 3 Religion and ideas; title: The legacy of Locke; title: The era of Hume; title: Select bibliography; title: 4 Science; title: The Royal Society: Ancients and Moderns; title: Newton and Newtonianism; title: Medicine; title: The English malady: madness and suicide; title: The development of psychological and neurological theory; title: A new theory of vision; title: Select bibliography; title: 5 The visual arts; title: Architecture; title: Painting and sculpture; title: The decorative arts; title: Gardens and landscapes; title: Select bibliography; title: Index