PROF.

CECI LI A KENNEDY
LI TERATURE A 201 4
Age of Reason: Prose
Authors of the period
Daniel Defoe
Jonathan Swift
Samuel Richardson
Henry Fielding
Laurence Sterne
Oliver Goldsmith
Fanny Burney
Samuel Johnson
Daniel Defoe
1660-1731
Remembered primarily for his novels
Works: Robinson Crusoe
Moll Flanders
Roxana
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
Jonathan Swift
1667-1745
Greatest prose writer of 1st part or perhaps whole
century
Great humorist and savage satirist
Dean of St Patricks in Dublin
Greatest works: A tale of a Tub
Gullivers travels
Skillful in verse as well as in prose, and his influence
continues (James Joyce, Aldous Huxley, George
Orwell)
Gullivers Travels
Hides much of its satire so cleverly children still
read it as a fairy story
Starts off by making fun of mankind (and especially
England and English politics)in a quite gentle
manner
Religious writing
1st part of the century: religious and philosophical
works 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 of
established Christianity
Religious writing
Bishop Berkeley: did not believe matter had any real
existence apart from mind
Things ultimately exist in Gods mind, not of
themselves
Samuel Richardson
1689-1761
Professional printer who took to novel writing when
he was fifty
Works: Pamela
Clarissa Harlowe
Sir Charles Grandison
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 virtuous
housemaid by an unscrupulous young man
Pamela clings to code of honour
Her reward: marriage to her would-be-seducer
Clarissa Harlowe
Remarkable novel: close analysis of character,
perhaps for first time in history of novel
Looks forward to great French novelists, Flaubert
and Stendhal
Lovelace the villain: complexity of make-up unusual
in literature of the age
Charles Grandison
According to burgess, this novel is inferior to the
other two
Henry Fielding
1707-54
Greatest novelist of century according to Burgess
Works: Joseph Andrews
Jonathan Wild
Tom Jones
Joseph Andrews
Started as parody of Pamela
Genre: picaresque : term originally applicable only to
novels where the leading character is a rogue
Bulk of the action takes place on the road, on a
journey, in which eccentric and low-life characters
appear

Jonathan Wild
Truly picaresque novel
Tom Jones
Fieldings masterpiece
Picaresque elements: theme of the journey occupies
greater 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

Laurence Sterne
Most famous work: Tristam Shandy:
breaks rules of language and punctuation
excludes all suggestions of a plot

Oliver Goldsmith
Contributed to development of English novel
Works: The Vicar of Wakefield:
sentimental and humorous country idyll
She Stoops to Conquer

Adam Smith
Economist
The Wealth of Nations (1776) : brilliance of style,
first book on Economics
Fanny Burney
1752-1840
One of the first female writers
Novels: Evelina
Cecilia
Realistic, humorous, full of credible
characters
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 state
man is happy and good. Society, by making life
artificial, produces evil
Doctrine of the noble natural man
Works: Emile
Gothic novels
Term: primarily architectural, denoting European
buildings flourishing in Middle Ages
Gothic buildings suggested: mystery, romance, revolt
against classical order, wildness, through
associations with medieval ruins
Gothic authors: Ann Radcliffe
Horace Walpole
Matthew Gregory Lewis
Horace Walpole
The Castle of Otranto (1764)
Ann Radcliffe
The Romance of the Forest
The Mysteries of Udolpho
The Italian
Skillfully written, mysteries always have rational
explanation at the end
Never offends conventional morality
Matthew Gregory Lewis
Works: The Monk: devils, horror, torture,
perversions, magic, and murder
Short-lived popularity
Mary Shelley
(1797-1851)
Frankenstein: work produced a good deal later

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 (The
Rambler, the Idler). Also: sermons, prayers,
meditations, biography (The lives of the poets),
dedications, prologues, speeches
Dictionary of the English Language
Critical writings