The writers and philosophers of this age reflected the ideology of the middle class. They protested against the survival of feudalism. They thought that vice was due to ignorance, so they started a public movement for enlightening the people. The enlighteners wanted to bring knowledge that is “light” to the people. To their understanding this would do away with all the evils of society, and social harmony would be achieved. The English Enlightenment was a relatively conservative compromise of new and old ideas with current conditions. Since the enlighteners believed in the power of reason, the period was also called the Age of Reason.

The century had many other titles. It has been called the Age of Classicism, because many writers and poets of that time were fascinated by ancient Greece and Rome. It has been called the Age of Elegance, for the display of elegant style of life among the upper classes.

Eighteenth-century literature reflects the ideas and interests of the Age of Reason, the Age of Classicism, the Age of Elegance. Works show a sense of order and moderation; writers display their “wit”, or cleverness. Prose is calm and logical; poems are carefully structured.

In the eighteenth century the subjects of study to which man applied himself became more numerous and more systematic, and it was the good fortune of England that prose in that age had become a pliant and serviceable medium. It was a century full of speculation and fierce questioning, a century with powerful minds that applied themselves to the problems of the nature of life, and set out solutions, which have been the basis of much later thought. It was a century, above all others, when England led Europe in philosophical speculation. The centre of interest was human experience, and what could be learned from it of the nature of life. Richardson and Fielding explored human experience in fiction. Historians were attempting, more ambitiously than before, to interpret the past of life, and philosophers to expound the nature of reality itself. It was natural that in such a century the orthodox teachings of the Church should be open to criticism. Writers widely accepted those literary forms, in particular, prose forms, which were understandable to the people as a whole. Manners, fashions, literature, stories, moral reflections, all took a turn as themes in brief papers, which were addressed consciously to a middle-class audience. The periodical essay was the eighteenth-century equivalent of the broadcast talk. Contact between writers and readers was established by famous English essayists Joseph Addison and Richard Steele. They started and directed several magazines for which they wrote pamphlets and essays. In 1709 Steele issued a magazine, “The Tatler”. It was followed by others: “The Spectator” (1711), “The Guardian” (1713), and “The Englishman”(1713). In the latter political problems were discussed. Periodical newspapers also helped to spread information among the general public.

Joseph Addison (1672-1719) Richard Steele (1672-1729)

Drama of the 18th century continued traditions of Restoration play-wrights. Sentimental tragedies were popular with the growing audience. The interest in classical literature prompted many classical tragedies modeled on those of ancient Rome. The drama of the eighteenth century does not reach the same high level as the novel. One has to wait late in the century for Goldsmith and Sheridan, to find writers who make any permanent contribution to the English stage. Of a number of reasons which might be invented in explanation it is at least certain that the Licensing Act of 1737 restricted the freedom of expression by dramatists and drove a number of good men out of the theatre. Further, it was clear also that the middle-class commercial classes were gaining sufficient ascendancy to impose their obtuse views on the themes that would be acceptable in the theatre.

Outstanding in the early decades of the century is John Gay's “Beggar's Opera”, a play with ballads (1728); Oliver Goldsmith's “She Stoops to Conquer”, and Richard Brinsley Sheridan's “Rivals” and “School for Scandal”. The play, with its moral emphasis and its melodramatic theme, made a wide and immediate appeal. It was recognized that a new element had entered into drama, even if the dramatist who introduced it was obviously not of the first rank. The innovation is far more important than the play, for this way leads, however indirectly, to the modern social and realistic drama.

The main literary trends of the age of the Enlightenment in England were classicism, realism, sentimentalism and early romanticism, out of which, sentimentalism is a very English phenomenon. Sentiment may be defined as feeling, and in the eighteenth century, against the background of its many crudities and barbarities, there developed both in life and in literature movements such as Methodism, in social life in an increasing realization of the hardships, which the majority of mankind had to suffer. Its dangers are obvious, for it leads to emotionalism instead of mysticism, and to charity instead of genuine reform. It clouds the reason, substitutes pathos for tragedy, and obscures the harder issues of life in a mist of tenderness. In literature its effects were numerous, and, in comedies disastrous. An early exponent of sentimentalism was Richard Steele. The depths of sentimentalism were reached by some dramatists who showed how every human issue could be obscured in the welter of emotion. From such depths the drama was rescued by Oliver Goldsmith and Richard Sheridan. The XVIII century gave the world such brilliant English writers as Alexander Pope, Daniel Defoe, Jonathan Swift, Henry Fielding, Samuel Richardson, Tobias Smollet and famous dramatist Richard Brinsley Sheridan.

Eighteenth-century England is also often called the Augustan Age.

The term comes from the name given to the reign of the Roman emperor Augustus. During his reign, which lasted from 27 B.C. to 14 A.D. Latin literature reached its height with such great writers as Virgil, Horace, and Ovid. English authors tried to imitate or recapture many of the philosophic and literary ideals of this period of Roman history. Like the ancient Romans, they believed that life and literature should be guided by reason and common sense. They strove for balance and harmony in their writings. Augustan literature is sometimes divided into two periods, each named for its most influential man of letters - The Age of Pope, and after 1750, the Age of Johnson. Satire was one of the most common types of literature during the Augustan Age. The leading satirists of the period were Jonathan Swift in prose and Alexander Pope in poetry.

Thus, on the whole, the English literature of the period of Enlightenment may be characterized by the following features:

a) The rise of the political pamphlet and essay, but the leading genre of the Enlightenment became the novel. Poetry of the previous ages gave way to the prose age of the essayists and novelists. Poems were also created at this period, but the poets did not deal with strong human passions, they were more interested in the problems of everyday life, and discussed things in verse.

b) The heroes of the literary works were no longer kings and princes, but the representatives of the middle class.

c) Literature became instructive. The writers dealt with problems of good and evil. They tried to teach their readers what was good and what was bad from their own point of view.

Some literary critics divide the literature of the age of the Enlightenment into three periods:

The first period lasted from “The Glorious Revolution (1688) till the end of the 1730s. It is characterized by classicism in poetry. The greatest follower of the classic style was Alexander Pope. Alongside with this high style there appeared new prose literature, the essays of Steele and Addison and the first realistic novels written by Daniel Defoe and Jonathan Swift. Most of the writers of the time wrote political pamphlets.

The second period of the Enlightenment was the most mature period. It embraces the forties and the fifties of the 18th century. The realistic social novel of the time was represented by Samuel Richardson, Henry Fielding and Tobias Smollett.

The third period refers to the last decade of the 18th century. It is marked by the appearance of a new trend, sentimentalism, represented by the works of Oliver Goldsmith and Laurence Sterne. The realistic drama of the time was represented by Richard Brinsley Sheridan.

Àlexander Pope (1688 - 1744)

One of the great names in English poetry of the early 18th century is that of Alexander Pope. Being a classicist he developed a taste for the art of ancient Greece and Rome. Classical forms suited the age, which tried to bring everything under the control of reason. The simplicity, proportion, and restrained emotion of the ancient Greek and Roman writers appealed to the English classicists. In 1715 Pope published a part of his translations of the “Iliad” and the “Odyssey” of Homer, which brought him fame.

Pope had a delicate sense of style, which he polished to the highest degree. Pope's poems rapidly developed from the gentle lyrics of his earlier years into biting satires of English society and politics. Like his friend Jonathan Swift, he saw the age as one badly in need of the correction that satire could offer. He considered that one should follow the strict rules in poetry if wanted to become a real poet. In 1709 he published his “Pastorals”, written as an imitation of ancient authors. In 1711 his “An Essay on Criticism” was published. In the work the author had presented his aesthetic principles. In his satirical works “The Rape of the Lock”(1712), “The Dunciad” the poet ridiculed the vices of the society. Thus it was as a satirist that Pope was most effective. At his best, in “The Rape of the Lock”, he was able to mock at the whole of the fashionable society of the eighteenth century, while showing that he had some passionate attachment to its elegance. “The Dunciad”, in which he abused dullness in general, and the contemporary dunces in particular, is more ephemeral until one approaches the magnificent conclusion on Chaos, undoubtedly the most profound passage in Pope's work.

Pope, dealing with his favourite subject of vice and virtue in his famous poem the “Essay on Man” (1733- 1734), expresses a philosophy in verse, but rather as moral precepts than as a vision. Superficially his teaching may seem optimistic, but beneath the surface can be seen the alert mind, perceiving the pride of man, his high-vaunting ambitions, and, in contrast, the inadequacy of his faculties. In this work Pope advised readers to take the middle way - avoiding extremes - in all things. He perfected the heroic couplet the “Essay on Man”.

Pope's philosophy was rationalism. Rationalism is a conviction that one should think and behave rationally - according to reason; it takes for granted the idea that the world is put together in such a way that the human mind can grasp it. To help an ordinary human mind grasp the structure of this world a poet should describe the universe in words - not completely, but well enough to be understood by a human being.

Much of Pope's genius lay in his use of the heroic couplet (two rhymed lines in iambic pentameter) that was basis of his poetry. The compact way in which he phrased old ideas into epigrams (brief philosophical sayings) makes him one of the most frequently quoted poets today. Some epigrams, taken from Pope's poetry are given below:

T'is education forms the common mind:

Just as the twig is bent the tree's inclined.

( - Moral Essays, Epistle IV, lines 247-248.)

To err is human, to forgive divine.

( - Ibid., line 325.)

A little learning is a dangerous thing;

Drink deep, or taste not the Persian spring.

( - Essay on Criticism, Part II, lines 15-16.)

Be not the first by whom the new are tried,

Nor yet the last to lay the old aside.

(Ibid., lines 135-136.)

For fools rush in where angels fear to tread.

( - Ibid., Part III, line 66.)

Daniel Defoe (1660 - 1731)

Daniel Defoe is the founder of the early realistic novel (with all these earlier developments of the novel, it is left to the eighteenth century to consolidate fiction as a form of literature, and from that time onwards there has been no cessation in novel-writing). He was a journalist, and in many ways, the father of modern English periodicals. He founded and conducted the first English newspaper “The Review” (1704 - 1713).

Daniel Foe was born in 1660 in the family of James Foe, a London butcher. (When he was thirty-five years old he assumed the more high-sounding name Defoe). His father was wealthy enough to give his son a good education. Daniel was to become a priest, but when his training was completed, he decided to engage in business as a hosier. It was his cherished desire to become wealthy but his wish was never fulfilled. Defoe went bankrupt several times. He was always in debt. The only branch of business in which he proved successful was journalism and literature.

When Defoe was about 23, he started writing pamphlets. In his “Essays on Projects” Defoe expressed his views on the greatest public improvements of modern times: higher education for women, the protection of seamen, the construction of highways, and the opening of saving-banks. He drove on the establishment of a special academy to study literature and languages.

In 1701 Defoe wrote a satire in verse, “The True-born Englishman”. It was written against those, who declared that the English race should be kept pure. In the satire Defoe proved that true-born Englishmen did not exist, since the English nation consisted of Anglo-Saxons, Danes, Normans, and others.

In 1719, he tried his hand at another kind of literature - fiction, and wrote the novel “The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe”. After the book was published, Defoe became famous and rich. Now he wrote for four public magazines and received a regular sum of money from the government. Other novels which Defoe wrote were also very much talked about during his lifetime, but we do not hear much about them now. Defoe published “The Life of Captain Singleton” in 1720, a vivid tale with piracy and Africa as its background, “The Fortunes and Misfortunes of Moll Flanders” in 1722, the “female rogues”, “A Journal of the Plague Year” in 1722, and “A History of the Lady Roxana” in 1724.

In 1729, while at work on a book, which was to be, entitled “The Complete English Gentleman”, Defoe fell ill and in two years time he died.

”Robinson Crusoe”

The first quarter of the 18th century witnessed a rise of interest in books about voyages and new discoveries. A true story that was described in one of Steele's magazines, “The Englishman”, attracted Defoe's attention. It was about Alexander Selkirk a Scottish sailor, who had quarrelled with his captain and was put ashore on a desert island near South America where he lived quite alone for four years and four months. In 1709 a passing vessel picked him up. Selkirk's story interested Defoe so much that he decided to use it for a book. However, he made his hero, Robinson Crusoe, spend twenty-eight years on a desert island. Defoe regards the novel not as a work of the imagination, but as a “true relation”, and even when the element of fact decreases, he maintains the close realism of pseudo-fact. He writes with a knowledge of his audience, mainly the Puritan middle classes, and selects themes which will have an immediate appeal to them. Superficially, these two conditions would appear to detract from his originality, but there exists in him a talent for organizing his material into a well-conducted narrative, with an effective eye for detail, in a style ever simple and welcoming, but never obtrusive. The combination of these qualities has given “Robinson Crusoe” its specific attractiveness and continuous interest in the book.

At the beginning of the story the main character of the novel, Robinson Crusoe, is an unexperienced youth, a rather light- minded boy. Then he develops into a strong-willed man, able to fight against all the calamities of his unusual destiny. Being cast ashore on a desert island after the shipwreck, alone and defenseless, Crusoe tried to be reasonable in order to master his despondency . He knew that he should not give way to self-pity or fear, or spend time in mourning for his lost companions.

Robinson Crusoe's most outstanding feature is his optimism. Some-times, especially during earthquakes or when he was ill, panic and anxiety overtook him, but never for long. He had confidence in himself and in man, and believed it was within the power of man to overcome all difficulties and hardships. Speaking of Crusoe's other good qualities, which helped him overcome despair, was his ability to put his whole heart into everything he did. He was an enthusiastic toiler always hoping for the best. He began to keep a journal of his life on the island. It is another evidence of Crusoe's courageous optimism.

But some critics consider the novel “Robinson Crusoe” to be an exaggeration of the possibilities of an individual man. According to Defoe, man can live by himself comfortably and make all the things he needs with no other hands to assist him. This individualism is characteristic of Defoe. He fails to see that Crusoe succeeds in making most of the things he possessed only thanks to some tools he found on the ship. These tools are made by many other people. Besides, Robinson Crusoe was a representative of the 18th century and he had inherited the experience of the many generations who had lived on the earth before him.

There is another character in the book whose name is Friday. The author makes the reader like Friday, who is intelligent, brave, generous, and skilful. He performs all his tasks well. Crusoe teaches him to speak English and is astonished how quickly the man begins to understand the language. It is to Defoe's credit that he portrays the savage as an able, kind-hearted human being at a time when coloured people were treated very badly and were regarded only as a profitable article for trade.

Taking a common man as the key-character of his novel, Defoe uses the manner of speech of common people. The purpose of the author was to make his stories so life like that the reader's attention would be fixed only on the events. This is achieved by telling the story in the first person and by paying careful attention to details. Form, in its subtler sense, does not affect Defoe: his novels run on until, like an alarm clock, they run down; but while movement is there the attention is held.

There was no writer of the age who appealed to so wide a circle of readers as Defoe, - he appealed to all, who were able to read.

“The Education of Women”

(In this pamphlet Daniel Defoe aims at educational reform for the women of his day. The passage given below vividly shows the writers attitude to this problem. )

I have often thought of it as one of the most barbarous customs in the world, considering us as a civilized and a Christian country, that we deny the advantages of learning to women. We reproach the sex every day with folly and impertinence, while I am confident, had they the advantage of education equal to us, they would be guilty of less than ourselves.

One would wonder, indeed, how it should happen that women are conversable1 at all, since they are only beholding to natural parts2 for all their knowledge. Their youth is spent to teach them to stitch and sew or make baubles. They are taught to read, indeed, and perhaps to write their names or so, and that is the height of women's education. And I would but ask any who slight the sex for their understanding, what is a man (a gentleman, I mean) good for that is taught no more? ...

The academy I propose would differ but little from public schools,3 wherein such ladies as were willing to study should have all the advantages of learning suitable to their genius.4 But since some severities of discipline more than ordinary would be absolutely necessary to preserve the reputation of the house, that persons of quality and fortune might not be afraid to venture their children thither, I shall venture to make a small scheme by way of essay.5

The house I would have built in a form by itself, as well as in place by itself...

In this house, the persons who enter should be taught all sorts of breeding suitable both to their genius and quality, and in particular, music and dancing, which it would be cruelty to bar the sex of, because they are their darlings; but besides this, they should be taught languages, as particularly French and Italian; and I would venture the injury of giving a woman more tongues than one. They should, as particular study, be taught all the graces of speech and all the necessary air of conversation, which our common education is so defective in that I need not expose it. They should be brought to read books, and especially history; and so to read as to make them understand the world and be able to know and judge of things when they hear of them. ...

Women, in my observation, have little or no difference in them, but as they are or are not distinguished by education. Tempers, indeed, may in some degree influence them, but the main distinguishing part is their breeding. ...

A woman well-bred and well taught, furnished with the additional accomplishments of knowledge and behavior, is a creature without comparison; her society is the emblem of sublimer enjoyments; her person is angelic and her conversation heavenly; she is all softness and sweetness, peace, love, wit, and delight. She is every way suitable to the sublimest wish, and the man that has such a one to his portion has nothing to do but rejoice in her and be thankful.

Jonathan Swift (1667 - 1745)

Jonathan Swift was the greatest of English satirists. He is generally thought to be the greatest prose writer of the eighteenth century. He was a man whom many considered a misanthrope (one who hates humankind) because his writings were deeply critical of humanity. It was, however, his deep love for humanity that caused him to criticize it, and his great dream was to cure the ills of his age through humor.

Swift was born in Dublin, but he came from an English family. The writer's father, supervisor at the court building of Dublin, died at the age of 25, leaving his wife and daughter penniless. His son was born seven months after his death, on November 30, 1667. He was named Jonathan after his late father.

The boy knew little of his mother's care: she had to go back to her native town of Leicester and Jonathan hardly ever saw her during his childhood. He was supported by his uncle Godwin.

At the age of six he was sent to school and at the age of fourteen he entered Trinity College in Dublin. He got his Bachelor's degree in 1686. After many years he once again saw his mother in Leicester. She helped Jonathan to become a private secretary and account-keeper to sir William Temple. Sir William Temple's estate was at Moor Park, not far from London. Sir William was a retired diplomat and writer. At Moor Park Swift made friends with Esther Johnson, the daughter of the housekeeper. Their friendship lasted all his life.

Having improved his education at Moor Park by taking advantage of Sir William's library, Swift went to Oxford and took his Master of Arts degree in 1692. A year and a half he worked as a vicar at a church in Ireland and then returned to Moor Park. He continued to live and work there until sir William Temple's death in 1699.

By 1697 Swift had written his first satires “The Battle of Books” and “A Tale of a Tub”. But both of them were published later, in 1704. In “A Tale of a Tub” the author ridiculed the extravagances of religion, literature, and academia. “The Battle of Books” is a mock debate between ancient and modern authors.

After sir William Temple's death, Swift became vicar again and went to live in Ireland. He invited Esther Johnson to come to his place. It is believed that Swift made a secret marriage with her, but much of his private life is unknown.

In Ireland Swift kept an eye on the political events of London. He wrote political pamphlets in defense of the Whigs. His contributions to “The Tattler”, “The Spectator” and other magazines show how well he understood the spirit of the time. Swift's conversations with the leaders of the English political parties are described in his letters to Stella (Esther). These letters became his famous work “Journal to Stella”.

In 1713 Swift was made Dean of St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin. In Ireland Swift came into contact with common people and saw miserable conditions under which the population lived. Swift wrote pamphlets criticizing the colonial policy of England. In 1726 Swift's masterpiece “Gulliver's Travels” appeared and it made a great sensation.

In 1728 Stella died after a long illness. This loss affected Swift deeply.

Conditions in Ireland between 1700 and 1750 were disastrous. Famine depopulated whole regions. Some areas were covered with unburied corpses. Swift wrote the pamphlets: “The Present Miserable State of Ireland”, “A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People from Being a Burden to Their Parents or the Country” and others.

Hard work and continuous disappointments in life undermined Swift's health. By the end of 1731 his mind was failing rapidly. In 1740 his memory and reason were gone and he became completely deaf. He died on the 19th of October 1745, in Dublin.

During all his hard later years of a mental decline his friends stayed loyal to him. The Irish people continue to this day to celebrate him as a hero. The generosity of spirit, deep learning, genuine humor were charac-teristic features of his writing, and they were a great gift to the literary tradition.

“Gulliver's Travels”

In “Gulliver's Travels” (originally the novel was called “Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World by Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon and then a Captain of Several Ships”) Swift criticized and satirized the evils of the existing society in the form of fictitious travels. Apart from being a good story, it is the indictment of the human race for refusing reason and benevolence as the ways of life. The scenes and nations described in the book are so extraordinary and amusing, that the novel still arouses interest with both children and adults. It covers the adventures of a ship's surgeon who is washed up on a number of imaginary shores. The novel is divided into four parts that are actually four voyages:

Part 1. A voyage to Lilliput.

Part 2. A voyage to Brobdingnag.

Part 3. A voyage to Laputa, Balnibarbi, Luggnagg, Glabdubdrib and Japan.

Part 4. A voyage to the country of the Houyhnhnms.

Thus, Gulliver first visits Lilliputians - tiny people whose bodies and surroundings are only 1/12 the size of normal people and things. At first the Lilliputians treat Gulliver well. Gulliver helps them, but after a time they turn against him and he escapes their land.

Gulliver's second voyage takes him to the country of Brobdingnag, where people are 12 times larger than Gulliver and amused by his tiny size.

Gulliver's third voyage takes him to several strange kingdoms. The conduct of the strange people of these countries shows the types of foolishness Swift saw in his world. For example, in the academy of Lagado, scholars waist all their time on useless projects such as extracting sunbeams from cucumbers. Here Swift satirizes impractical scientists and philosophers.

In his last voyage, Gulliver discovers a land ruled by wise and gentle horses called Houyhnhnms. Stupid, savage creatures called Yahoos also live there. The Yahoos look like human beings. The Houyhnhnms dislike and distrust Gulliver because he looks like Yahoos, and they believe he is also a Yahoo. Gulliver wishes to stay in the company of the Houyhnhnms, but they force him to leave.

Thus in each country Gulliver makes observations about society in general. He finally returns to England with a painful recognition of his own country's flaws.

The greatest merit of the novel is the satirical description of all the vices of the society of the time. Under the cloak of fantasy Swift satirized the politics of the time, religious prejudices, wars of ambition and the absurdity of many aspects of science.

Swift's style is uniquely simple. Every line and every detail is alive but it is full of biting satire. The author presents the most improbable situations with the utmost gravity and makes the reader believe them. Defoe's prose is clear, it is a clarity sustained by the most vigorous mind of the century. It defies imitation. Never is the meaning obscure, and each argument is developed with a deadly certainty, not through rhetoric, but by putting the proper words in the proper places.

Jonathan Swift had a great influence on the writers who came after him. His work has become popular in all languages. Like Defoe's “Robinson Crusoe”, it has the merit both of amusing children and making men think.

The Development of the English Realistic Novel

The development of the novel is one of the great achievements of the English literature. The foundations of early realism in English literature were laid by Daniel Defoe and Jonathan Swift. Their novels were of a new type and with a new hero, but they were based on imaginary voyages and adventures supposed to take place far from England. Gradually the readers' tastes changed. They wanted to find more and more of their own life reflected in literature. These demands were satisfied when the great novels of Samuel Richardson, Henry Fielding and Tobias Smollet appeared one after another. They marked a new stage in the development of literature. The greatest merit of these novelists is in their deep sympathy for the common man. The common man is shown in his actual surroundings, which makes him convincing, believable, and true to life. With Fielding the novel had come of age. He had established it in one of its most notable forms, middle-class realism. He had endowed it with a conception of forms, and made it an art not unworthy of comparison with the pictorial art.

Many scholars consider Samuel Richardson's “Pamela” (1740) to be the first true novel in English. This book is highly moralistic. In contrast, the novels of Henry Fielding and Tobias Smollet are humorous and satiric. Laurence Stern was another leading novelist of the period. With the above-mentioned writers, yet background alone was lacking, and was to remain absent until Walter Scott gave it lavishly in his fictions. Above all, he had less reticence than Richardson, and less than any of the novelists that succeeded him in the nineteenth century.

Henry Fielding (1707 - 1754)

Henry Fielding was the greatest representative of realism in the 18th century. He was from an aristocratic family and studied at the old-established boys school of Eton. At the age of twenty he started writing for the stage, and his first play “Love in Several Masques” was a great success with the public. The same year he entered the philological faculty of the University at Leyden (a Dutch city), but he had to leave his studies because he was unable to pay his fees.

From 1728 till 1738 25 plays were written by Fielding. In his best comedies “A Judge Caught in his Own Trap”(1730), “Don Quixote in Eng-land” (1734), and “Pasquin” (1736) he mercilessly exposed the English court of law, the parliamentary system, the corruption of state officials and religion. But the censorship of the stage put an end to Fielding's career as a dramatist. The writer had to earn his living by some means and he tried his pen as a novelist. Besides, at the age of thirty he became a student of a University law faculty. On graduating, he became a barrister and in 1748 accepted the post of magistrate. This work enlarged his experience. Being unable to do away with social evils, he exposed them in his books.

In the period from 1742 to 1752 Fielding wrote his best novels: 1) ”Joseph Andrews” (1742), to ridicule Richardson's “Pamela”. He contrived this satire by reversing the situation in the latter's novel. Instead of the virtuous serving-maid, Fielding presents Joseph as the chaste servant. Fielding's purpose in this first novel is nowhere a simple or direct one. Apart from the motive of satire, he is attracted, in a learned way, by the contrasts between the novel, with its picture of humble, contemporary life, and the classical epic. With this in mind he calls his novel “a comic epic in prose”, and it leads him, with encouragement from Cervantes, to introduce a burlesque element into the style and frequently into the incident; 2) “The Life of Mr. Jonathan Wild the Great” (1743), the motive of satire completely dominated his second narrative, in which he took the life of a thief and receiver, who had been hanged, as a theme for demonstrating the small division between a great rogue and a great soldier, or a great politician; 3) “The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling” (1749) - Nothing in his work compares with this great novel, so carefully planned and executed that though the main theme follows Tom Jones's life from childhood onwards, the reader is kept in suspense until the close as to the final resolution of the action; and “Amelia” (1752), his last novel and is less even in its success. He idealizes the main woman character, and this leads to an excess of pathos, which deprives the novel of the balance possessed be “Tom Jones”. All these novels were excellent but they did not make him rich; only his publishers prospered. Fielding continued to act as a judge till 1754. Then he had to leave England for Portugal to restore his health, which had begun to fail. But the warm climate of the country did not help him; he died in Lisbon in October 1754 and was buried there.

Fielding possessed qualities rarely found together; a rich imagination, great critical power and keen knowledge of the human heart. He used to say that the three essential qualities in a novelist are genius, learning, and experience of human nature. His characters are all-round living being of flesh and blood, a combination of contradictions of good and bad. The virtues he appreciates greatest are courage, frankness and generosity. The most detestable vices for him are selfishness and hypocrisy. All these found its expression in Fielding's masterpiece “The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling”. In this novel he has drawn one of the great human characters of the English literature.

“The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling”

The novel consists of eighteen books, each beginning with an introductory chapter where the author discourses with the reader, in a free easy manner, on certain moral and psychological themes. The plot of the novel is very complicated; its construction is carefully worked out, every detail being significant. Depicting England of the 18th century, Fielding touches upon all spheres of life. He shows the courts of law, the prison, the church, the homes of people of all classes, inns and highways, even the theatre. Many people of different social ranks and professions are introduced. The charm of the book lies in the depiction of Tom's character. He is a full-blooded human being, neither idealized nor ridiculed. His open, generous and passionate nature leads him into a long series of adventures. Tom acts on impulse sometimes well and sometimes ill, but never from interested motives. He is light-minded and naive, but kind, honest and unselfish, always ready to help anyone who needs his assistance. His intentions are noble and good, but he is simple-hearted. That's why he often falls a victim to prejudice and he is constantly accused of vices he is not guilty of.

In his ''The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling” Fielding has taken an ordinary young man. Tom's parentage is unknown and he had been left as a foundling on the doorstep of squire Allworthy. As a matter of fact, he is illegitimate child of Allworthy's sister but this is not revealed till the end of the story. Allworthy is a guardian of another nephew too and the uncle rears the two together. Tom is an open hearted type who always falls into trouble. Blifil has hypocritic nature. He constantly tells on Tom and poisons his uncle's mind against him. Tom falls out of Squire Allworthy's favour as a result of one of his lapses (slight errors), a love affair with Molly Seagrim, a gamekeeper's daughter. Squire sends Tom away. Tom sets out on his travels, accompanied by the schoolmaster Partridge, a simple lovable creature, and meets with many adventures on the road after he leaves home.

Finally, Tom is discovered to be the son of Allworthy's sister, Blifil's treachery through the years comes to light. Tom is happily united to the lovely Sophia Western, daughter of a country squire. All ends happily.

Sentimentalists

As it was outlined above, towards the middle of the 18th century a new literary trend appeared. It was sentimentalism. The first representative of the sentimental school in the English literature was Samuel Richardson (1689-1761), the son of a joiner, who came to London and was apprenticed as a printer. He remained a printer throughout his life and followed the path of the virtuous and successful apprentice, even to marrying his master's daughter. He was asked to prepare and a series of model letters for those who could not write for themselves. Richardson told maid-servants how to negotiate a proposal of marriage, apprentices how to apply for situations, and even his sons how to plead their father's forgiveness. This humble task taught Richardson that he had at his fingers' ends the art of expressing himself in letters, and in the years that followed he published three long works, on which his reputation rests; “Pamela; or, Virtue Reward-ed” (1740), “Clarissa; or, the History of a Young Lady” (1748) and “The History of Sir Charles Grandison” (1754), in which the inner world of the character is shown. In them Richardson glorifies middle-class virtues as opposed to the immorality of the aristocracy. He makes his readers sympathize with his heroes. In each instance, the central story is a simple one. Pamela was a virtuous servant, who resisted the attempts at seduction of the son of her late mistress, and, as a result, gained from him a proposal of marriage, which she gleefully accepted. Clarissa was virtuous but a lady. Tormented by the pressure of her family, who urged on her a detestable suitor, she fled from home to the protection of the attractive Mr. Lovelace, who, once he had her in his power, declared his attention in a manner which even his virtuous upbringing could not mistake. Nor was he content with declarations. For when these failed, he forced himself upon her, and as indirect consequence of is actions, she died. Sir Charles Grandison was a model gentleman, who rescued one lady, and was betrothed to another, a situation which he controlled with incredible delicacy, to the apparent satisfaction of all parties.

Richardson was the first novelist of the period to make so detailed a study of feelings and states of mind. His epistolary novels “Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded “ and “Clarissa; or, the History of a Young Lady” had a lasting and deep influence upon the history of European literature. These novels were very much admired in the 18th and 19th centuries. These works are too long to be much read today, but their influence has been enormous.

Richardson's books brought various important, and in some ways new, elements to the novel. Each of his novels has a unified plot rather than disconnected episodes. The works established the theme of courtship leading to marriage as a basic plot of the novel.

All three novels by Samuel Richardson are written in the form of letters. The main direction of his novels was a detailed description of real people in common situations of domestic life. Particularly, Richardson's novels treat woman's concern for security, marriage, and a social role. The novelty of form, by which he revealed his narrative through letters, came by accident, but, though never self-conscious in his art, he must have realized that this was his ideal method. For his strength lay in the knowledge of the human heart, in the delineation of the shades of sentiment, as they shift and change, and the cross-purposes which trouble the mind moved by emotion.

Influenced by the French writer Rousseau the sentimentalists thought that civilization was harmful to humanity. They believed that man should live close to nature and be free from the corrupting influence of town life. For example, in Oliver Goldsmith's novel “The Vicar of Wakefield” (1766) and Laurence Sterne's (1713 - 1768) “Sentimental Journey” and in some other novels of the time, the corruption of town life is contrasted to the happy patriarchal life in the country. Oliver Goldsmith was also a poet. Most of his poems are devoted to the village life. (e.g. “The Deserted Village”). Samuel Johnson said of him in an epitaph, he attempted every type of literature and each type he attempted he adorned. His dramas and his novel have already been recorded, and his hack-work history is best left without record. His essays, however, showed his individuality, and in “The Citizen of the World” (1762) he comments on life through the imaginary letters of a Chinese visitor. The other sentimentalist poets of the 18th century were: James Thomson (1700 1748), who was too diffuse to be a great artist. His poem “The Seasons” (1726) is like a schoolboy's essay padded into the requisite size. Yet for over a century he was one of the most widely-read poets in England. His sympathy with ordinary life, and for poverty, combined with his generous sentiment made him acceptable to many who could not tolerate the hard brilliance of A. Pope. Also his treatment of nature was original, even if ponderous, and it was a theme growing in popularity; Thomas Gray (1716 -1771), the author of the “Elegy”. He was among the most learned men in Europe in his day, yet his poems are a thin sheaf, a few odes and the “Elegy”. He brought into his poems new interests, but with the whole of the classical and medieval world within his grasp it is sad that some melancholy or inertia held him from composition.

Samuel Johnson (1709 - 1784)

The second half of the eighteenth century is often called the Age of Johnson. It was named so after Samuel Johnson, whose powerful personality and long literary career, made him the dominating literary figure of the century, from about 1750 until his death in 1784. He was a critic, poet, playwright, lexicographer, essayist, and biographer. Johnson may not have been the greatest writer of his time, but his conservative values and his deep sensibility reflected the age and a profound impact on it.

Samuel Johnson was born in the northern cathedral town of Litchfield, where his father ran a small bookstore. The family was poor, and his father's lack of money forced Johnson to leave Oxford University without taking a degree. After he left Oxford, he earned his living with a number of teaching and journalism jobs, non of which were a financial success and non of which could satisfy his literary ambitions. However, by the 1740s he began to produce works of considerable importance.

Johnson's literary achievements are remarkable. His “Dictionary of the English Language” (1755) is noted for its scholarly definitions of words and the use of excellent quotations to illustrate the definitions. No one has equaled him in describing clearly to the English people what the words in their language really mean. In his “The Lives of the English Poets” (1779-1781) Johnson critically examined the work of 52 poets from Cowley to Gray and did much to establish literary criticism as a form of literature. Johnson also wrote articles, reviews, essays, and two satires, “London” (1738) and “The Vanity of Human Wishes” (1749) both based on juvenal, these show what his powerful mind, his grave moral outlook and his incisive phrasing could acieve. His prose work “Rasselas” (1759), though nominally an Abyssinian narrative, employs the story only for the philosophical argument, which is a trenchant attack on people who seek an easy path to happiness.

Johnson's friends (The Johnson circle) were the most important writers of the late 1700s. They included Oliver Goldsmith; Edmund Burke, who stood high in the councils of the nation. Burke's main work is to be found in a series of political pamphlets, mainly delivered in the form of speeches. Burke in his prose always has the spoken word in mind, and, though he argues closely, he has the audience in view. This contrast with the audience gave him the eloquence and the passion which entered into some of his best-known passages (“On American Taxation”, 1774, “On Conciliation with the Colonies”, 1775), Burke's oratory became a part of English history. Special tribute should be given to Johnson's biographer, James Boswell (1740-1795), whose “Life of Johnson” was published in 1791. The publication in the middle of the twentieth century of Boswell's own journals and diaries has established him as a major writer, independently of the “Life”. It was the Jonson of the later years that he recorded, working from minute records of his sayings, and his mannerism, and with a realistic art that has no parallel. The capacity, the wit, and the downrightness of Johnson, along with his often kindly and always devout approach to life, are the elements of the portrait which Boswell has created, and without his biographer Johnson would be a lesser man. The list should also include an outstanding playwright of the time, Richard Brinsley Sheridan.

Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751-1816)

Sheridan was a dramatist and politician. He produced several memorable comedies and was an excellent speaker in the British Parliament. At one time he was Under-Secretary fo Foreign Affairs and Secretary to the Treasury.

Sheridan was born in Dublin. In his early 20's he wrote his comedy “The Rivals” (1775), showing an ease and mastery which in a first play was almost incredible. Sheridan's finest play, one of the great comedies of English drama “The School for Scandal” was written in 1777. This play exposes society people who love malicious gossip and does it with glittering wit. Here the author creates contrasting characters of a careless but kind young man, Charles Surface, and his cunning and selfish brother Joseph.

Sheridan's next work is “The Critic”, a short satiric play, written in 1779. In this work Sheridan wittily criticizes theatrical fashions. His other plays: the farce “St. Patrick's Day” and a comic opera “The Duenna” were written in 1775. The main memory from his plays is of the verbal dexterity and the laughter which his well-planned scenes can create. Distinctive his comedy undoubtedly is, though its quality cannot easily be described. Often its elements seem reminiscent, and yet the whole is strikingly individual. He was sufficiently realistic to portray the late eighteenth century as no other dramatist had done, yet with the quality of romance. He is unembarrassed by any message, unless it be that the generous and open-hearted spirit is in life the most commendable. It may be that the recognition of this quality has added to the enjoyment which successive generations of audiences have found in his plays. Later George Byron remarked of Sheridan in these words: “He has made the best speech and written the best comedy, the best opera and the best farce in the English literature”.

In 1780 he was elected to the British Parliament, and until 1812, he devoted himself to politics. Some of Sheridan's political speeches delivered within this period are regarded as a classical example of English oratory art. His political life influenced his creative work and in 1799 Sheridan wrote his last play “Pizarro”. It was a political tragedy.

UNIT 6. THE ROMANTIC AGE IN ENGLISH LITERATURE (1780-1830)

literature poetry beowulf

Pre-Romantic Literature

Johnson and his circle were the last great literary figures of the 1700s to follow the classical rules of writing. English writers of the late 1700s and early 1800s substituted passion for Augustan harmony and moderation. They preferred mysteriousness, believed in the creative power of the imagination and adopted a personal view of the world. These writers are called romantics.

Besides, in the age of Romanticism in English literature there was a group of poets who represented a bridge between classicism and romanticism. They are called pre-romantics. The leading pre-romantic poet is William Blake. The poetry of Robert Burns, Thomas Gray and William Cowper also bear the features of pre-romanticism. In many of their works the pre-romanticists showed their awareness of social problems and the love of nature that became typical of English romanticism.

For example, Thomas Gray described the unfulfilled lives of common people in his famous “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” (1751). It abounds with images which find a mirror in every mind and with sentiments to which every bosom must return an echo. William Cowper wrote of the beauties of nature and his dislike of cities in “The Task” (1785) where he moved freely amid rural scenes and described them in a manner not very heavy and pretentious. But the most outstanding pre-romanticists in English literature were Robert Burns and William Blake.

Robert Burns (1759 - 1796)

Robert Burns was the most famous Scottish poet of the 18th century. He wrote poetry in English and Scottish dialect. His birthday is celebrated in Scotland as a national holiday. His verses inspired many British and foreign poets.

Robert Burns was born on January 25, 1759 in Ayrshire, Scotland. His father, William Burns, was a poor farmer, but he tried to give his son the best education. Later, the poet wrote about it in his verses “My Father Was a Farmer”: