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Alexander Pope
was an 18th-century English poet, best known for his satirical verse and for his translation of Homer. Famous for his use of the heroic couplet. -
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Augustan age
The late 17th, early 18th century (1689 -1750) in English literature is known as the Augustan Age. Writers at this time "greatly admired their Roman counterparts, imitated their works and frequently drew parallels between" contemporary world and the age of the Roman emperor Augustus (27 AD - BC 14). Some of the major writers in this period were John Dryden (1631-1700), Jonathan Swift (1667-1745). -
The Way of the World
William Congreve's play The Way of the World premiered.Although unsuccessful at the time The Way of the World is a good example of the sophistication of theatrical thinking during this period, with complex subplots and characters intended as ironic parodies of common stereotypes.
It is widely regarded as one of the best Restoration comedies. -
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The Daily Courant
The first ever daily newspaper. -
A Tale of a Tub
Author: Jonathan Swift (1667- 1745). He was an Anglo-Irish satirist, poet, essayist, political pampletheer and cleric. He is mostly known for his prose satires and for being a master in Juvenalian and Horatian styles of satire.
Overview: A Tale of a Tub is Swift´s first major work and his most difficult sarire.The tale is divided into "digression" and a "tale" of three brothers, each representing a branch of western Cristianity. It was misunderstood by people of that time. -
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One Thousand and One Nights
From 1704 to 1717, Antoine Galland published the first European translation of the One Thousand and One Nights (also known as The Arabian Nights in English). His version of the tales appeared in twelve volumes and exerted a huge influence on subsequent European literature and attitudes to the Islamic world. -
An Essay on Criticism
Was written in 1709, published 2 years later.
It is primarily concerned with how writers and critics behave in the new literary commerce of Pope's contemporary age. The poem covers a range of good criticism and advice. It also represents many of the chief literary ideals of Pope's age. -
Robinson Crusoe
Author: Daniel Defoe (1660- 1731). He was an English trader, writer, journalist, pamphleeter and a spy. Defoe is one of the founders of English novel.
Overview: The book is often credited as marking the beginning of realistic fiction as a literary genre. It is a fictional autobiography of Robinson Crusoe- a castaway who spends years on a remote tropical island near Trinidad, encountering cannibals, captives, and mutineers before being rescued. -
Gulliver's Travels
Author: Jonathan Swift
Overview: Through his novel, Swift satirizes party politics, religious differences, and Western Culture in ways still relevant to today's world. Gulliver's Travels is a is Swift's best known full-length work, and a classic of English literature. -
The London Merchant
George Lillo's play "The London Merchant" was a success at the Theatre-Royal in Drury Lane. It was a new kind of play, a domestic tragedy, which approximates to what later came to be called a melodrama. -
A Dictionary of the English Language
Author: Samuel Johnson (1709- 1784). He was a poet, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer.
Overview: It had a far-reaching effect on Modern English. Johnson took nearly nine years to complete the work as he did it alone with just one assistant. The Dictionary offers an insight into the language used in 18th century. -
The Sorrows of Young Werther
Goethe wrote The Sorrows of Young Werther, a novel which approximately marks the beginning of the Romanticism movement in the arts and philosophy. A transition thus began, from the critical, science inspired, enlightenment writing to the romantic yearning for forces beyond the mundane and for foreign times and places to inspire the soul with passion and mystery.
