Intro to literature 9

Intro to literature 9

• 1.
  NiNth MeetiNg –eighteeNth-CeNtURYNiNth MeetiNg – eighteeNth-CeNtURY PROSePROSe Notable 18th Century Writers and their works: Typical work on literature: change from strange plots and ideas of heroic tragedy to reasonable ones. Daniel Defoe • Journal of the Plague Year (1722): a description of the Great Plague of London. • Robinson Crusoe (1719): based on a real event of Alexander Selkirk, about a man living alone in a deserted island.
• 3.
  • The Tatler:a paper of essays on various subjects. Richard Steele and Joseph Addison (their personalities reflected from their works: Steele is warm and friendly, Addison is calm, learned and against violence.) • The Spectator: the more famous paper, introducing the actions of imaginary characters, such as the famous Sir Roger de Coverley.
• 4.
  • The Battleof the Books (1704): an argument about the abilities between the books of the ancient and of the modern (on the side of the ancients) Jonathan Swift (a bitter satirist) • Tale of a Tub (1704): a satire attacking religious ideas, annoying many readers. • A Modest Proposal (1729): a satire accepting evils and showing the extreme results (e.g: the poor selling their children to the rich for food).
• 5.
  Jonathan Swift • Gulliver’sTravel (1726): a four books satire. The first two are popular with the young. They tell the story of Gulliver’s voyage to Lilliput and Brobdingnag. The Lilliputians wars in the story are actually the satire of English wars. Dr Samuel Johnson (famous for his quoted words) • Dictionary (1755) : a dictionary of English, greatest until the completion of Oxford English Dictionary 150 years later.. • Lives of the Poets (1779-81)
• 7.
  Dr Samuel Johnson •Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia (1759) : a kind of novel with many essays on various subjects, about Rasselas, his sister Nekayah, and the philosopher Imlac going to Egypt to study. Notes: Johnson wrote Rasselas in only one week to pay for his mother’s funeral.
• 8.
  James Boswell • Lifeof Johnson (1791): the greatest biography of English, about Dr Samuel Johnson and his famous words. A man, Sir, should keep his friendship in constant repair. Let me smile with the wise and feed with the rich. There is now less flogging in our great school than formerly, but then less is learned there; so that what the boys get at one end they lose at the other. It matters not how a man dies, but how he lives.
• 9.
  Edward Gibbon • TheDecline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1764- 88): six books in total, recognized as the greatest accurate historical work in English literature. Edmund Burke (a lawyer and a member of Parliament) • Speech on American Taxation (1774) • Speech on Conciliation with America (1775) • Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol (1777) • Reflection on the French Revolution (1790)
• 10.
  Lady Mary WortleyMontagu She wrote from Turkey, describing events in the country, and discovering as well as introducing the way to prevent smallpox to England. Earl of Chesterfield IV He was famous for his letters of advice to his son and his correspondence to Dr Samuel Johnson. Notable English Letter Writers
• 11.
  Notable English NovelProper Writers: Samuel Richardson • Pamela (1740): written in a form of serial letters about Pamela Andrews, a good girl who receives the reward of virtue. Note: The ladies at that time were excited because they can read a story of common English girl, and no longer of far-away princesses.
• 12.
  Samuel Richardson • ClarisseHarlowe (1747-8): Richardson’s best work, a very long tragic novel about a girl forced by his father to marry against her will. • Joseph Andrews (1742): started as a kind of satire on Pamela, talking about Joseph Andrews, Pamela’s brother, but in the end it mainly talked about a cheerful priest, Parson Adams. Henry Fielding
• 13.
  • Tom Jones(1749): Fielding’s greatest novel, in 18 books, each had an essay before it. It is about a boy’s experience of being raised with kindness, falling in love, being driven out of the house, having adventure in London, and meeting his love again. Henry Fielding • The History of Jonathan Wild the Great (1743): a satire about a real criminal, Wild, who stole a lot of money, was found guilty, and was put to death in 1725.
• 14.
  Tobias Smollet • RoderickRandom (1748): a picaresque novel about the lives of those who sail the seas. • Peregrine Pickle (1751): about an unpleasant hero who travels and fights a lot. A notable character here is Trunnion, a seaman with bad language but heart of gold. • Humphrey Clinker (1771): less violent and in a form of letters. It is about the Bramble family’s travels through England and Scotland.
• 15.
  Laurence Sterne (known forconfusing stories and his dislike of order) • Tristram Shandy (1760-7) Notes: The hero is born after the half of the story. Sterne leaves the story and gives opinions and essays on any subject whenever he likes. • A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy (1768): not as confusing and in better prose, but still strange.
• 16.
  Oliver Goldsmith • TheVicar of Wakefield (1761-2): a novel about a good and virtuous family which has great misfortunes but it has a happy ending. • The Castle of Otranto (1764): a horror novel about 12th and 13th centuries impossible story, e.g. the destruction of a building by a huge ghost inside it. Horace Walpole Note: it is written partly as a joke.
• 17.
  William Beckford • Vathek(1761-2):a horror novel about Vathek who became the servant of Eblis, the devil and travelled to the underworld. • The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794): a horror novel in the Appenine Mountains whereas the protagonist Emily is held in a castle by her aunt’s evil husband. Mrs Ann Radcliffe Note: it is her greatest novel.
• 18.
  See You nextweek!