The age of virtue
Subtitle: British culture from the Restoration to Romanticism
By: David Morse.
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 2000
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 330
Subjects: English literature -- 18th century -- History and criticism; Virtue in literature; English literature -- Early modern, 1500-1700 -- History and criticism; Didactic literature, English -- History and criticism; Ethics, Modern -- 18th century; Romanticism -- Great Britain; Great Britain -- Civilization -- 18th century
Description: "In the eighteenth century 'virtue' was a word to conjure with. David Morse argues that, far from being shorthand for some rather vacuous establishment values, virtue was at the heart of a series of confrontations with institutionalised authority, whether political, patriarchal or imperial. It was in the name of virtue that power and hierarchy were challenged.

But with the coming of the French Revolution the very idea of virtue suddenly began to look distinctly old-fashioned - it seemed at once too elitist and too inflexible to respond to the rapidly changing circumstances of a democratic age."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 321-326) and index.