MAJOR WORKS AND AUTHORS IN BRITISH LITERATURE
OF 18TH AND 19TH CENTURY
Question no.6, Topic 2
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middle class people had more money and free time than before so they were learning how to read
first libraries and coffee houses appeared
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journalism developed, the reader began to be influenced by writers of various articles
popular newspapers were the Tatler and the Spectator, however most of them comprised
only one sheet
popular journalists were Richard Steele and Joseph Adison
the English novel developed during the 18th century, partly in response to an expansion
of the middle class reading public
prose was the most accessible form for the new readers, so the essay, letters, criticism,
and later the novel became the main literary genres
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A. THE AGE OF REASON
- this movement advocated rationality as a means to establish an authoritative system of
ethics, aesthetics, and knowledge
- the intellectual leaders of this movement regarded themselves as courageous and elite,
and regarded their purpose as leading the world toward progress and out of a long period
of doubtful tradition, full of irrationality, superstition, and tyranny
Daniel Defoe (1660-1731)
- an English writer, journalist and spy
- he is notable for being one of the earliest practitioners of the novel and helped popularize
that genre in England, he is also a pioneer of economic journalism
Robinson Crusoe – a fictional autobiography of the title character, an English castaway
who spends 28 years on a remote island, encountering savages, captives, and mutineers
before being rescued
- the positive reception was immediate and universal, before the end of the year, it had
run through four editions
Jonathan Swift (1667-1745)
- an Anglo-Irish writer, foremost prose satirist although he is also well known for his
essays and poems
The Gulliver’s Travels - both a satire on human nature and a parody of the "travellers'
tales" literary sub-genre
- his masterpiece and one of the indisputable classics of the English language
- tremendously popular immediately after it was published
A Modest Proposal – a satirical pamphlet, he proposes for example to fatten up the
undernourished children and feed them to Ireland's rich land-owners
A Tale of a Tub - his most difficult satire, and possibly his most masterful
- a prose parody which is divided up into sections of "digression" and "tale"; the "tale"
presents a consistent satire of religious excess, while the digressions are a series of
parodies of contemporary writing in literature, politics, theology, Biblical exegesis, and
medicine
Henry Fielding (1707-1754)
- an English novelist and dramatist known for his rich earthy humor and satirical prowess
- some of his work being savagely critical of the contemporary government
Tom Jones – a comic novel about a handsome, brave, generous young man of uncertain
parentage and hearty appetites, remains faithful to his beloved in spirit, if not in flesh
- it has inspired several adaptations, including an Academy Award-winning film and a
television miniseries
Laurence Sterne (1713-1768)
- an Anglo-Irish novelist and clergyman, who also wrote sermons and memoirs, and who
was involved in local politics
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman – published in nine volumes,
text is filled with allusions and references to the leading thinkers and writers of the 17th
and 18th centuries
A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy – Sterne travelled through France
and Italy as far south as Naples, and after returning determined to describe his travels
from a sentimental point of view
Tobias Smollett (1721-1771)
- a Scottish author, best known for his picaresque novels - a popular style of novel that
originated in Spain and flourished in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries, the term
denotes a subgenre of usually satiric prose fiction and depicts in realistic, often humorous
detail the adventures of a roguish hero of low social degree living by his or her wits in a
corrupt society
The Adventures of Roderick Random
The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle
Oliver Goldsmith (1730-1774)
- an Irish writer and physician
The Vicar of Wakefield
B. ROMANTICISM
- secular and intellectual movement in the history of ideas that originated in late 18th
century Western Europe
- it stressed strong emotion (which now might include trepidation, awe, and horror as
aesthetic experiences), the individual imagination as a critical authority (which permitted
freedom within or from classical notions of form in art), and overturning of previous
social conventions, particularly the position of the aristocracy
- there was a strong element of historical and natural inevitability in its ideas, stressing the
awe of "nature" in art and language and the experience of sublimity through a connection
with nature
George Gordon Byron (1788-1824)
- an Anglo-Scottish poet
- fame rests not only on his writings, but also on his life, which featured extravagant living,
numerous love affairs, debts, separation, allegations of incest and sodomy and an eventual
death from fever after he travelled to fight on the Greek side in the Greek War of
Independence
Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage – a lengthy narrative poem with some autobiographical
features that describes the travels and reflections of a world-weary young man who,
disillusioned with a life of pleasure and revelry, looks for distraction in foreign lands
- in a wider sense, it is an expression of the melancholy and disillusionment felt by a
generation weary of the wars of the post-Revolutionary and Napoleonic eras
Don Juan – an incomplete narrative poem, based on the legend of Don Juan
Walter Scott (1771-1832)
- a prolific Scottish historical novelist and poet popular throughout Europe during his time.
In some ways Scott was the first author to have a truly international career in his lifetime
Ivanhoe – a novel set in 12th century England, an example of historical fiction
Waverley - Scott's first venture into prose fiction, anonymously published in 1814, and
is often regarded as the first historical novel
The Lake Poets – they all lived in the Lake District of England at the turn of the 19th century
- as a group, they followed no single "school" of thought or literary practice then known
- they are considered part of the Romantic Movement
- the three main poets were William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge (The Rime
of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla Khan), and Robert Southey
C. VICTORIAN WRITERS
Jane Austen (1775-1817)
- an English novelist whose work is considered part of the Western canon – a list of
greatest works with significant literary and artistic merit, that is thought by many to have
been highly influential in shaping Western culture
- her insights into women's lives and her mastery of form and irony have made her
arguably the most noted and influential novelist from her era
Sense and Sensibility
Pride and Prejudice - its opening is one of the most famous lines in English literature "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune,
must be in want of a wife."
- it deals with issues surrounding courtship and marriage among the landed gentry in the
late 18th century and early 19th century
- the main character is Elizabeth Bennet, a 20-year-old girl possessed of a quick mind,
sharp wit, and keen sense of justice
Emma
Emily Brontë (1818-1848)
- a British novelist and poet, the younger sister of Charlotte Brontë
Wuthering heights – her only novel
Charles Dickens (1812-1870)
- an English novelist
- the popularity of his novels and short stories during his lifetime and to the present is
demonstrated by the fact that none have ever gone out of print
- Dickens played a major role in popularising the serialised novel - a format by which a
story is told in contiguous installments in sequential issues of a single periodical
publication
Nicholas Nickleby
Great Expectations
David Copperfield
The Pickwick Papers
Oliver Twist
Thomas Hardy (1840-1928)
- a novelist, short story writer, and poet of the naturalist movement, who delineated
characters struggling against their passions and circumstances
- the bulk of his work, set mainly in the semi-imaginary county of Wessex, is marked by
poetic descriptions, and fatalism
Far from the Madding Crowd - the title is apt, as the life of the book's heroine,
Bathsheba Everdene, living in the quiet rural village of Weatherbury is indeed disrupted
by the "madding crowd"
- the role of fate is clearly established, with each twist and turn in the book being more
luck than the choice of one of the characters
The Mayor of Casterbridge - a tragic novel, set in the fictional town of Casterbridge
Jude the Obscure – his last novel, received so harsh a reception from scandalized critics
that Hardy stopped writing fiction altogether, producing only poetry and drama for the
rest of his life
Lewis Carroll (1832-1898)
- a British author, mathematician, logician, Anglican clergyman and photographer
- his facility at word play, logic, and fantasy has delighted audiences ranging from children
to the literary elite
- his works have remained popular since they were published and have influenced not only
children's literature, but also a number of major 20th century writers such as James Joyce
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Through the Looking-Glass – its sequel
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)
- an Anglo-Irish playwright, novelist, poet, and short story writer
- one of the most successful playwrights of late Victorian London, and one of the greatest
celebrities of his day, known for his barbed and clever wit, he suffered a dramatic
downfall and was imprisoned after being convicted in a famous trial of "gross indecency"
for homosexual acts
- became particularly well known for his role in the aesthetic and decadent movements
- he began wearing his hair long and openly scorning so-called "manly" sports, and began
decorating his rooms with peacock feathers, lilies, sunflowers, blue china
The Picture of Dorian Gray – his only novel
An Ideal Husband
The Importance of Being Earnest