The Cambridge History of English Literature, 1660–1780 offers readers discussions of the entire range of literary expression from the Restoration to the end of the eighteenth century. In essays by thirty distinguished scholars, recent historical perspectives and new critical approaches and methods are brought to bear on the classic authors and texts of the period. Forgotten or neglected authors and themes as well as new and emerging genres within the expanding market place for printed matter during the eighteenth century receive special attention and emphasis. The volume’s guiding purpose is to examine the social and historical circumstances within which literary production and imaginative writing take place in the period and to evaluate the enduring verbal complexity and cultural insights they articulate so powerfully.
• The most comprehensive one-volume history of Restoration and eighteenth-century literature available • Completely up-to-date scholarship, featuring new perspectives and methodologies, with chapters on women writers, print culture, and the historical, philosophical and political contexts • Newly commissioned essays by thirty distinguished scholars
Contents
Introduction John Richetti; Part I. Literary Production and Dissemination: Changing Audiences and Emerging Media: 1. Publishing and bookselling, 1660–1780 James Raven; 2. The social world of authorship, 1660–1714 Dustin Griffin; 3. Popular entertainment and instruction, literary and dramatic: chapbooks, advice books, almanacs, ballads, farces, pantomimes, prints and shows Lance Bertelsen; 4. Novels on the market William B. Warner; Part II. Literary Genres: Adaptation and Reformation: 5. Restoration and early eighteenth-century drama Harold Love; 6. Dryden and the poetic career Steven Zwicker; 7. Political, satirical, didactic and lyric poetry (I): From the Restoration to the death of Pope J. Paul Hunter; 8. Eighteenth-century women poets Paula Backscheider; 9. Systems satire: Swift.com Michael Seidel; 10. Persistence, adaptations and transformations in pastoral and georgic poetry David Fairer; 11. Political, satirical, didactic and lyric poetry (II): after Pope John Sitter; 12. Drama and theatre in the mid- and later eighteenth century Robert D. Hume; 13. Scottish poetry and regional literary expression Fiona Stafford; Part III. Literature and Intellectual Life: The Production and Transmission of Culture: 14. History and literature, 1660–1780 Karen O'Brien; 15. A preliminary discourse on philosophy and literature Michael Prince; 16. British and European literature and thought Jeffrey Barnouw; 17. Religion and literature Isabel Rivers; 18. Literary criticism and the rise of national literary history Lawrence Lipking; 19. Augustan England and British America William C. Dowling; Part IV. Literature and Social and Institutional Change: 20. The eighteenth-century periodical essay Robert De Maria; 21. Public opinion and the political pamphlet R. A. Downie; 22. Sentimental fiction: ethics, social critique and philanthropy Thomas Keymer; 23. Folklore, antiquarianism, scholarship and high literary culture Robert Folkenflik; Part V. Literary Genres: Transformation and New Forms of Expressiveness: 24. Personal Letters Patricia Spacks; 25. Diary and autobiography Stuart Sherman; 26. The Gothic novel Terry Castle; 27. Eighteenth-century travel literature Carole Fabricant; 28. Women novelists, 1740s–1780s Felicity Nussbaum; 29. Burke and the uses of eloquence: political prose in the 1770s and 1780s Frans de Bruyn; Part VI. Conclusion: 30. More is different: literary change in the mid- and late eighteenth century Clifford Siskin; Chronology; Biography.
Review
'The volume is reliable and stimulating. It will have a long life as a work of reference, and is an excellent indication of the current state of the subject.' Forum for Modern Language Studies
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