Routledge Library Editions: 18th Century Literature – serie

This 13 volume set contains titles, originally published between 1949 and 1991. Focusing on eighteenth-century England it includes titles which examine novels, drama and poetry from the time. There are titles that discuss the literature in a historical, sociological and political context as well as from a feminist perspective. Other texts look at the language and structure used in literature and how it has evolved over time. This collection will be of interest to students of literature and literary theory.

Numerological patterning in literature, where structural details of a literary work are symbolically related to its meaning on the verbal level, was particularly common from the Middle Ages up to the seventeenth century. Originally published in 1973, the author breaks new ground in revealing that familiarity with this technique lived on into the eighteenth century, supplying the more artistically aware of the early British novelists with meaningful formal guidelines.An account is given of the origins and continuity of the numerological tradition in Western European – and particularly English – thought as it affected literary structure. The careful structural patterning in the novels of Defoe and in Fielding’s Joseph Andrews and Tom Jones is examined in detail. Smollett, too, is shown to have been interested in exploring the possibilities of number and pattern, and the clear-cut numerological framework of Sterne’s Tristram Shandy is revealed.This original and controversial study combines structural analysis with fresh interpretative insights, and draws parallels with painting, music and architecture. It also has an important bearing on the history of ideas in the first half of the eighteenth century.

Numerological patterning in literature, where structural details of a literary work are symbolically related to its meaning on the verbal level, was particularly common from the Middle Ages up to the seventeenth century. Originally published in 1973, the author breaks new ground in revealing that familiarity with this technique lived on into the eighteenth century, supplying the more artistically aware of the early British novelists with meaningful formal guidelines.An account is given of the origins and continuity of the numerological tradition in Western European – and particularly English – thought as it affected literary structure. The careful structural patterning in the novels of Defoe and in Fielding’s Joseph Andrews and Tom Jones is examined in detail. Smollett, too, is shown to have been interested in exploring the possibilities of number and pattern, and the clear-cut numerological framework of Sterne’s Tristram Shandy is revealed.This original and controversial study combines structural analysis with fresh interpretative insights, and draws parallels with painting, music and architecture. It also has an important bearing on the history of ideas in the first half of the eighteenth century.

Originally published in 1985, this book traces the development of an ideal of work in English writing which runs parallel to that of the Protestant work ethic. The author has called this the myth of vocation: work is seen as the primary source of self-definition, psychic integration and fulfilment. The root, and the purest form, of the idea is to be found in Robinson Crusoe. This work, so seminal in many ways, presents a prototypical middle-class hero, caught in a conflict between the impulse to adventure and that to create and make profits.The conflicts articulated in this work are picked up more or less explicitly by more than one of the great Victorian novelists. This book treats in detail several paradigmatic examples, deriving its terms of reference from modern sociological treatments of work and its effects on persons. The gospel of work need not result in capitalistic or protestant attitudes, but is compatible also with communistic ideas. This study serves to revalue the concept of work as a humanistic activity as well as offering a subtle reading of major works of literature.

Originally published in 1985, this book traces the development of an ideal of work in English writing which runs parallel to that of the Protestant work ethic. The author has called this the myth of vocation: work is seen as the primary source of self-definition, psychic integration and fulfilment. The root, and the purest form, of the idea is to be found in Robinson Crusoe. This work, so seminal in many ways, presents a prototypical middle-class hero, caught in a conflict between the impulse to adventure and that to create and make profits.The conflicts articulated in this work are picked up more or less explicitly by more than one of the great Victorian novelists. This book treats in detail several paradigmatic examples, deriving its terms of reference from modern sociological treatments of work and its effects on persons. The gospel of work need not result in capitalistic or protestant attitudes, but is compatible also with communistic ideas. This study serves to revalue the concept of work as a humanistic activity as well as offering a subtle reading of major works of literature.

Recent scholarship had emphasised the importance of a number of non-literary, economic and social debates to the understanding of Augustan Literature. Debates over the place of land, money, credit and luxury in society, as well as strands of radical thinking, are prominent throughout the period.Originally published in 1984, this anthology of eighteenth century writings about contemporary society is divided into sections on the social order, economics, the poor and crime, with a general introduction identifying some of the dominant social discourses of the period. They reflect the emergence of an embryonic capitalist society, with its challenge to feudal ties, and of a nascent bourgeois class. This collection of writings is not intended to provide material for an empirical historical account of these changes, but to give some idea of the ideological terms in which they are perceived, endorsed or contested by contemporaries; and provide a set of discursive contexts in which the imaginative literature of the period can be read. The texts themselves repay close analysis as the bearers of complex ideological positions and it is interesting to observe how, for example, Pope accommodates Shaftesbury and Mandeville in the Moral Essays.A fascinating anthology, Literature and the Social Order in Eighteenth-Century England, complete with editor’s introduction and notes on the passages, aims to suggest lines of inquiry without offering a ‘total’ reading.

Recent scholarship had emphasised the importance of a number of non-literary, economic and social debates to the understanding of Augustan Literature. Debates over the place of land, money, credit and luxury in society, as well as strands of radical thinking, are prominent throughout the period.Originally published in 1984, this anthology of eighteenth century writings about contemporary society is divided into sections on the social order, economics, the poor and crime, with a general introduction identifying some of the dominant social discourses of the period. They reflect the emergence of an embryonic capitalist society, with its challenge to feudal ties, and of a nascent bourgeois class. This collection of writings is not intended to provide material for an empirical historical account of these changes, but to give some idea of the ideological terms in which they are perceived, endorsed or contested by contemporaries; and provide a set of discursive contexts in which the imaginative literature of the period can be read. The texts themselves repay close analysis as the bearers of complex ideological positions and it is interesting to observe how, for example, Pope accommodates Shaftesbury and Mandeville in the Moral Essays.A fascinating anthology, Literature and the Social Order in Eighteenth-Century England, complete with editor’s introduction and notes on the passages, aims to suggest lines of inquiry without offering a ‘total’ reading.

The qualities and achievements of eighteenth century English literature have suffered denigration as a result of a prevailing Whig interpretation of literary history. It is the contention of this book, originally published in 1986, that an alternative form of Whig interpretation is possible and even desirable. It has as its sphere of interest the ways in which views on the nature and benefits of political freedom, and various "whiggish" readings of literary history, political theory and aesthetics, did in fact shape literary and social changes through the eighteenth century. Many characteristic Romantic tenets can be seen as springing, not fully formed from the heads of their creators, but directly out of the aesthetic concerns focusing around Longinus, and the recognition of the historically singular nature of the British constitution.This book studies and analyses the forms such concerns took in several of the central thinkers and writers of the period, and is an important contribution to the understanding of the eighteenth century milieu.

The qualities and achievements of eighteenth century English literature have suffered denigration as a result of a prevailing Whig interpretation of literary history. It is the contention of this book, originally published in 1986, that an alternative form of Whig interpretation is possible and even desirable. It has as its sphere of interest the ways in which views on the nature and benefits of political freedom, and various "whiggish" readings of literary history, political theory and aesthetics, did in fact shape literary and social changes through the eighteenth century. Many characteristic Romantic tenets can be seen as springing, not fully formed from the heads of their creators, but directly out of the aesthetic concerns focusing around Longinus, and the recognition of the historically singular nature of the British constitution.This book studies and analyses the forms such concerns took in several of the central thinkers and writers of the period, and is an important contribution to the understanding of the eighteenth century milieu.

The eighteenth century produced more inventive actors than fine dramatists, and it displayed its actors to increasing advantage as theatre management became more expert, and stage design more ambitious. First published in 1972, the eleven papers collected in The Eighteenth-Century English Stage, originally read at a Manchester University Symposium in July 1971, follow this historical emphasis. Two papers are centred on dramatists, four on actors, three on managers, and two on designers.Malcolm Kelsall analyses Steele’s debt to Terence, using his classical scholarship as illuminatingly as Edgar Roberts uses his musical scholarship in writing about the songs in Fielding’s plays. George Taylor compares and evaluates a number of theories of acting, and speculates on the likely relevance of the best-known books on rhetoric, whilst Kathleen Barker, Arnold Hare, and David Rostron consider the work of individual actors – Powell, Cooke, and John Kemble. Theatre managers are represented by John Rich in Paul Sawyer’s sympathetic account, Thomas Harris, who is given new life in the recent researches of Cecil Price, and Stephen Kemble, fixed by Kenneth Robinson in canny control of the Newcastle theatre circuit. Finally, Graham Barlow reaches some controversial conclusions about the dimensions of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, by subjecting Thornhill’s sketches to a practising designer’s statistical examination, and Sybil Rosenfeld carries a stage further her pioneering work on eighteenth-century scene-painting and design. The two last are attractively illustrated by 8 pages of plates.This book’s particular value lies in its bringing together several simply presented but deeply informed explorations of often neglected aspects of the eighteenth-century theatre. The papers, with their general sense of enthusiasm and concern for their subject, will interest all students of the eighteenth century, and theatre enthusiasts in particular.

The eighteenth century produced more inventive actors than fine dramatists, and it displayed its actors to increasing advantage as theatre management became more expert, and stage design more ambitious. First published in 1972, the eleven papers collected in The Eighteenth-Century English Stage, originally read at a Manchester University Symposium in July 1971, follow this historical emphasis. Two papers are centred on dramatists, four on actors, three on managers, and two on designers.Malcolm Kelsall analyses Steele’s debt to Terence, using his classical scholarship as illuminatingly as Edgar Roberts uses his musical scholarship in writing about the songs in Fielding’s plays. George Taylor compares and evaluates a number of theories of acting, and speculates on the likely relevance of the best-known books on rhetoric, whilst Kathleen Barker, Arnold Hare, and David Rostron consider the work of individual actors – Powell, Cooke, and John Kemble. Theatre managers are represented by John Rich in Paul Sawyer’s sympathetic account, Thomas Harris, who is given new life in the recent researches of Cecil Price, and Stephen Kemble, fixed by Kenneth Robinson in canny control of the Newcastle theatre circuit. Finally, Graham Barlow reaches some controversial conclusions about the dimensions of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, by subjecting Thornhill’s sketches to a practising designer’s statistical examination, and Sybil Rosenfeld carries a stage further her pioneering work on eighteenth-century scene-painting and design. The two last are attractively illustrated by 8 pages of plates.This book’s particular value lies in its bringing together several simply presented but deeply informed explorations of often neglected aspects of the eighteenth-century theatre. The papers, with their general sense of enthusiasm and concern for their subject, will interest all students of the eighteenth century, and theatre enthusiasts in particular.

The aim of this book, originally published in 1978, is to make the reading of literary classics such as Gulliver’s Travels, Robinson Crusoe, Tom Jones, The Beggar’s Opera and Tristram Shandy an even richer experience by giving them an intelligible place in history. The ‘context’ is seen not as a vague backcloth, but as a living fabric of ideas and events which animate Augustan literature. The authors cover the achievements of men like Hume, Walpole, Chippendale, Newton and Reynolds, who are often merely names to the literary student, and show how writers were affected by exciting developments in psychology, aesthetics, medicine and other fields. As a whole the book shows this period to have been an active, questing and complex era, whose literary masterpieces emanate from a rich and diverse culture.

The aim of this book, originally published in 1978, is to make the reading of literary classics such as Gulliver’s Travels, Robinson Crusoe, Tom Jones, The Beggar’s Opera and Tristram Shandy an even richer experience by giving them an intelligible place in history. The ‘context’ is seen not as a vague backcloth, but as a living fabric of ideas and events which animate Augustan literature. The authors cover the achievements of men like Hume, Walpole, Chippendale, Newton and Reynolds, who are often merely names to the literary student, and show how writers were affected by exciting developments in psychology, aesthetics, medicine and other fields. As a whole the book shows this period to have been an active, questing and complex era, whose literary masterpieces emanate from a rich and diverse culture.

Eighteenth-century England saw an explosion of writings about deviance. In literature, in the law, and in the press, writers returned again and again to the question of crime and criminals.While the extension of the legal system formalised the power of the state to categorise and punish ‘deviance’, writers repeatedly confronted the problematic nature of legal authority and the unstable idea of ‘the criminal’. Some of this commentary was supportive, some was subversive and resistant, uncovering the complexity of issues the law sought to ignore.Originally published in 1991, Ian Bell’s masterly investigation of the diverse representations of crime and legality in the Augustan period ranges widely across the contemporary press, involving court reports, philosophical writings, periodicals, biographies, pornography and polemics. Re-assessing the canonical texts of eighteenth-century ‘Literature’, Bell situates the work of Defoe, Hogarth, Gay, Swift, Pope, Richardson and Fielding in its social and political context.

Eighteenth-century England saw an explosion of writings about deviance. In literature, in the law, and in the press, writers returned again and again to the question of crime and criminals.While the extension of the legal system formalised the power of the state to categorise and punish ‘deviance’, writers repeatedly confronted the problematic nature of legal authority and the unstable idea of ‘the criminal’. Some of this commentary was supportive, some was subversive and resistant, uncovering the complexity of issues the law sought to ignore.Originally published in 1991, Ian Bell’s masterly investigation of the diverse representations of crime and legality in the Augustan period ranges widely across the contemporary press, involving court reports, philosophical writings, periodicals, biographies, pornography and polemics. Re-assessing the canonical texts of eighteenth-century ‘Literature’, Bell situates the work of Defoe, Hogarth, Gay, Swift, Pope, Richardson and Fielding in its social and political context.

Few centuries have seen greater changes in social perspective and guiding ideas than the eighteenth century; literature in every Western country was a powerful instrument not only in recording these changes but in bringing them about. In England, the rise and development of a new literary form – the novel – graphically mirrors that great transition in social ideology, often with rare entertainment.Originally published in 1965, in the words of Professor Steeves: ‘This volume is to deal with the years in which the novel was still an experiment. At the beginning of the eighteenth century there was no novel. By the end, novels of every description were being published, not in dozens, but in hundreds. The badness of the product was universally recognized, but perhaps fifty had emerged out of the ruck of mediocrity, some tolerable, some good, and some great.’ The author tells us that it is the province of the novel ‘to deal with what seems to be real people, in situations which have the tang of the life of the time and which pose significant problems related to that life.’ He examines the changing view of the social scene in the works of the great novelists of the period – Defoe, Richardson, Fielding, Smollett, and Sterne – and in the less familiar but still significant novels of others from the time. The discussion ends with Austen because she comes ‘exactly at the end of a century highly important in intellectual and cultural history, and at the beginning of another century equally epoch-making…. Miss Austen can properly be called the first modern English novelist, the earliest to be read with the feeling that she depicts our life, and not a life placed back somewhere in history, or off somewhere in imagined space’.

Few centuries have seen greater changes in social perspective and guiding ideas than the eighteenth century; literature in every Western country was a powerful instrument not only in recording these changes but in bringing them about. In England, the rise and development of a new literary form – the novel – graphically mirrors that great transition in social ideology, often with rare entertainment.Originally published in 1965, in the words of Professor Steeves: ‘This volume is to deal with the years in which the novel was still an experiment. At the beginning of the eighteenth century there was no novel. By the end, novels of every description were being published, not in dozens, but in hundreds. The badness of the product was universally recognized, but perhaps fifty had emerged out of the ruck of mediocrity, some tolerable, some good, and some great.’ The author tells us that it is the province of the novel ‘to deal with what seems to be real people, in situations which have the tang of the life of the time and which pose significant problems related to that life.’ He examines the changing view of the social scene in the works of the great novelists of the period – Defoe, Richardson, Fielding, Smollett, and Sterne – and in the less familiar but still significant novels of others from the time. The discussion ends with Austen because she comes ‘exactly at the end of a century highly important in intellectual and cultural history, and at the beginning of another century equally epoch-making…. Miss Austen can properly be called the first modern English novelist, the earliest to be read with the feeling that she depicts our life, and not a life placed back somewhere in history, or off somewhere in imagined space’.

The third Earl of Shaftesbury had generally been known as the forerunner of the Moral Sense school of philosophers in the eighteenth century. Surprisingly little attention had been paid to his importance for literature and yet undoubtedly this had been very great. Originally published in 1951, this study gives an account of Shaftesbury’s aesthetic and literary theory; his discussion of the imagination, ridicule, the aesthetic judgment and the sublime; and his anticipation of later writers such as Burke, Coleridge and Kant. It also considers Shaftesbury’s thought as part of the background of ideas in the Augustan period and his influence in such fields as literature, architecture and landscape gardening. In addition, the author assesses in more general terms Shaftesbury’s attempt to maintain a Platonic viewpoint that would be more congenial to poetry than Locke’s "new way of ideas".

The third Earl of Shaftesbury had generally been known as the forerunner of the Moral Sense school of philosophers in the eighteenth century. Surprisingly little attention had been paid to his importance for literature and yet undoubtedly this had been very great. Originally published in 1951, this study gives an account of Shaftesbury’s aesthetic and literary theory; his discussion of the imagination, ridicule, the aesthetic judgment and the sublime; and his anticipation of later writers such as Burke, Coleridge and Kant. It also considers Shaftesbury’s thought as part of the background of ideas in the Augustan period and his influence in such fields as literature, architecture and landscape gardening. In addition, the author assesses in more general terms Shaftesbury’s attempt to maintain a Platonic viewpoint that would be more congenial to poetry than Locke’s "new way of ideas".

What is it like being a woman – in society, in the home and as a person in one’s own right? Originally published in 1967, here is a collection of passages, all linked by their theme, that of being a woman. They are taken from novels, essays, letters and diaries written by or about women concerning their psychology and position in society from the later eighteenth century onwards. In these days of emancipation and assumed equality (in some countries at any rate) it is as well to remember the very recent past and to look forward to the future, for all girls will have, certain problems to face just because they are girls. It is best to be prepared.The anthology was chosen and organised for girls who were taking English, either for General Studies or in preparation for University. The extracts cover a wide range of styles and periods, and were selected both as representative of their time and as good examples of prose. Love, sex, marriage, motherhood and the wider role of women in society are among the topics covered, and there is an ample list of suggestions for further readings, biographical notes on the writers and suggested questions for discussions or essay-writing.

What is it like being a woman – in society, in the home and as a person in one’s own right? Originally published in 1967, here is a collection of passages, all linked by their theme, that of being a woman. They are taken from novels, essays, letters and diaries written by or about women concerning their psychology and position in society from the later eighteenth century onwards. In these days of emancipation and assumed equality (in some countries at any rate) it is as well to remember the very recent past and to look forward to the future, for all girls will have, certain problems to face just because they are girls. It is best to be prepared.The anthology was chosen and organised for girls who were taking English, either for General Studies or in preparation for University. The extracts cover a wide range of styles and periods, and were selected both as representative of their time and as good examples of prose. Love, sex, marriage, motherhood and the wider role of women in society are among the topics covered, and there is an ample list of suggestions for further readings, biographical notes on the writers and suggested questions for discussions or essay-writing.

The outlook of writers in the eighteenth century was profoundly influenced by the social and intellectual interests of Augustan life. Originally published in 1954, this book aims to describe that influence, and to set the literature of the period in its social environment with a critical attention. The treatment is compact but readable, and effective use is made of quotations from contemporary literature.

The outlook of writers in the eighteenth century was profoundly influenced by the social and intellectual interests of Augustan life. Originally published in 1954, this book aims to describe that influence, and to set the literature of the period in its social environment with a critical attention. The treatment is compact but readable, and effective use is made of quotations from contemporary literature.

Originally published in 1987, this title is a comprehensive study focused on experimental forms in eighteenth-century fiction. It suggests that the eighteenth-century novel is misread because it is judged with the templates of nineteenth and twentieth century versions of ‘the novel’ in mind, rather than as a standalone genre. Looking at works from well-known authors of the time this learned and lively book, gently but precisely undermines a basic category of modern literary understanding.

Originally published in 1949, this title was written in order to help establish a better understanding of the ‘stock diction’ of eighteenth-century English poetry, and, in particular, of the diction commonly used in the description of nature. The language characteristic of so much of the poetry of this period had been severely criticized for a long time. But in the twenty or thirty years prior to publication some effort had been made to review the subject and the problem. However, several questions still remained unanswered, and more exhaustive analysis needed to be undertaken. This volume was an effort to provide answers for some of these questions and to begin the analysis that was required.

Originally published in 1949, this title was written in order to help establish a better understanding of the ‘stock diction’ of eighteenth-century English poetry, and, in particular, of the diction commonly used in the description of nature. The language characteristic of so much of the poetry of this period had been severely criticized for a long time. But in the twenty or thirty years prior to publication some effort had been made to review the subject and the problem. However, several questions still remained unanswered, and more exhaustive analysis needed to be undertaken. This volume was an effort to provide answers for some of these questions and to begin the analysis that was required.