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18th Century Prose
The 18th century in English prose has been called the
Augustan Age, the Neoclassical Age and the Age of
Reason.
It was termed the Augustan Age because literature
writers during the time were consciously imitating the
works of the original Augustan writers, Horace and
Vergil, who had lived during the time of Augustus, the
first emperor of Rome.
It was also called the Age of Neoclassicism because
the 18th century writers had found novel ways to
synthesize and incorporate the writing style and
technique of the traditional writers, the canonic
classics, into their own work without direct imitation or
mimicry, giving rise to a new literature form.
A Brief Look At English Literature
Finally, the 18th century in English prose has also been
called the Age of Enlightenment or the Age of Reason
mainly because it focused on reason and rational
thought as the primary basis of authority, a divergence
from previously-held and widely-accepted notions in
which God and nature were the pillars of authority.
The 18th century in English literature was a
kaleidoscope of emerging literary movements, forms
and styles which had been received with much acclaim
as well as criticism during the time.
We will start of with a study of the literature of
Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift who used satire as
the vehicle for social and political commentary and
criticism.
Then we take a closer look at the emergence of the
realistic modern novel, pioneered by Daniel Defoe.
After, we go through James Boswell’s great foray into
biographic writing in which he offered a personal
glimpse into the life of a literary genius.
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Finally, we will delve into Edward Gibbon’s
historiography
of
the
Roman
Empire
and
its
implications in the contemporary world.
Satire: Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift
Satire was a common theme in 18th century English
literature.
Satirical literature is criticism of an individual, group, a
social practice or the government that is hidden in
comedy, wit, sarcasm and irony.
The subject of a satirical piece is often exposed to
subtly veiled ridicule that when finally recognized,
would hopefully convince the satiric subject to change.
The most accomplished writer of the Augustan Age
was Alexander Pope.
Equally proficient in poetry, prose as well as in the
translations of the classics, he was called the “The
Wicked Wasp of Twickenham” because of unabashed
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criticism of the writing styles of his literary
contemporaries.
Pope had to struggle against two disadvantages during
his lifetime: he was crippled because of a deformity of
the spine and he was also denied a university of
education because he was a Roman Catholic living in
largely Protestant England.
In true Augustan form, Pope’s first published work in
1709 was an imitation of Vergil, entitled the Pastorals.
He also imitated Horace’s Art of Poetry and published
An Essay on Criticism in 1711 which produce the very
famous line, “To err is human, to forgive, divine”.
He also published The Rape of the Lock in 1712, a
mock-heroic poem which introduced his famous heroic
couplet.
Pope’s most persevering work, however, was his
translation of Homer’s Iliad in 1720 and Odyssey in
1726.
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These translations brought Pope significant financial
success and he is often considered as the first writer in
history to actually make a living out of writing.
One of Alexander Pope’s literary contemporaries,
Jonathan Swift, is best recognized for his satirical
masterpiece, Gulliver’s Travels.
In the tale, Captain Lemuel Gulliver travels to Lilliput
where the inhabitants are diminutive in size such that
Captain Gulliver is all but amused at their attempt at
civilization.
He then travels to Brobdingag where the opposite
happens because its inhabitants are giants who laugh at
Captain Gulliver’s miniscule size and his account of
the greatness of England, Alexander Swift’s direct stab
at England’s overpowering sense of superiority.
Next, Captain Gulliver finds himself in Laputa and
Lagado which were inhabited by scientists and quack
doctors, written by Swift as a thinly veiled criticism of
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the scientists and writers of his time who were
obsessed with immortality.
Finally, Captain Gulliver travels to Houyhnhnmland
where horses behaved like rational men and humans
behaved like beasts, Swift’s satire of humans treading
the thin line between humanity and bestiality.
Although written as a political and social satire, the
characters of Gulliver’s Travels had greatly appealed to
children and in modern times, it is often considered as
a bedtime story.
However, during its three printings in 1726, it became
an instant hit and was later translated to French,
German and Dutch the following year.
Swift also published
A Modest Proposal for
Preventing the Children of Poor People from Being a
Burden to their Parents or Their Country in 1729
where he expressed his intense disdain for Britain’s
exploitative economic policy in Ireland, his home
country.
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In A Modest Proposal, Swift satirically suggests that
the poor Irish must fatten their children like farm
animals and sell them as a delicacies and treats for
British gentlemen in order to correct Ireland’s
economic imbalance.
Novel: Daniel Defoe
Considered by literary historians as a pioneer in the
field of realistic fiction writing, Daniel Defoe was a
novelist, journalist and political pamphleteer who
produced more than 500 books, poems, articles and
pamphlets.
Defoe had turned to focus on writing when he became
bankrupt in 1692 and his first important piece was An
Essay Upon Projects released in 1698.
But it was his popular poem support of the Dutch-born
King William III, The True-Born Englishman, that
brought him much fame.
In The True-Blue Englishman, Defoe had stubbornly
rebuked the English people for questioning the king’s
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lineage and discriminating against foreigners because
according to Defoe, most of the things that they had
considered typically English, were in fact of foreign
nature and therefore they had no right in criticizing
their king.
It was not until he was almost 60 years old that Defoe
turned to writing novels with Robinson Crusoe
published in 1719 as his best-known realistic fiction
novel.
Robinson Crusoe was inspired by the tale of the
Scottish sailor, Alexander Selkirk, who had been
stranded in an island near Chile.
Defoe’s strong narrative was spectacularly showcased
in the novel’s seemingly realistic descriptive passages,
which were centered on man’s amazing ability to
endure and survive despite so many trials in an
unforgiving environment.
This theme of difficulties of surviving in a threatening
world and man’s natural instinct for self-preservation is
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also manifested in Defoe’s later works, particularly
The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll
Flanders, A Journal of the Plague Year, The History
and Remarkable Life of the Truly Honorable Colonel
Jack, all published in 1722, and Roxana, published in
1724.
Biography: James Boswell
James Boswell once claimed that his biography of
Samuel Johnson, The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.
(1791), was “the most perfect that can be conceived”
and it was rightly so.
This two-volume biography of the writer Samuel
Johnson whom he first met in 1763 and with whom he
had a lifelong correspondence and friendship has been
widely considered as one of the greatest English
biographies.
Whereas early biographers had the general tendency to
describe their subjects from historical detached
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viewpoint, Boswell had been intensely personal in
writing about the life of Johnson including not only his
genius and moral worth but also all his human errors.
Boswell had included in the biography conversations
he had had with Johnson, which he had written down
in his journals at the time.
This lent a very personal account into the life of
Johnson and readers of the biography were given a
complete glimpse of an amazing life instead of a dry,
impersonal narrative.
Historiography: Edward Gibbon
Edward Gibbon was the foremost historian of the 18th
century.
The History of the Decline of the Roman Empire,
published from 1776 to 1788, which narrated the
Roman Empire from the 2nd century AD to the fall of
Constantinople in 1453, had been hailed as one of the
greatest and widely read works of history.
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Gibbon had supported The History of the Decline of the
Roman Empire with more than 8300 references and his
own extensive knowledge of the geography of the
classical world.
This
contrasted
greatly with
the
contemporary
historical works at the time that were more philosophycentered and less historical data driven.
According to the six-volume historical text, the fall of
the Roman Empire had been due to the rise of
Christianity, for which Gibbon had been criticized by
many.
He also deftly contrasted the weakened Roman Empire
to the energy of its conquerors.
Beyond his extensive historical narrative, Gibbon
sought to explain how the fall of the Roman Empire
greatly influenced the modern world in terms of
religious authority and scholastic philosophy, which
had been the pervading culture of the 18th century
when the historical text was written.
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By doing so, his work does not only have historical
value but a social one as well.
While there are still so many literary movements and
styles that emerged during the 18th century, it was
satiric literature, realistic fiction, biography and
historiography works that defined the era.
Pope, Swift, Defoe, Boswell and Gibbon had set the
bar high by producing significant works of literature
during the 18th century that went on and influenced the
19th century writers that came after them.
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