The Cambridge History of English Literature, 1660–1780

A collaborative account of eighteenth-century writing in all its genres and forms.

John Richetti (Edited by)

9781107604599, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 16 February 2012

964 pages, 10 b/w illus.
22.7 x 15.2 x 4.8 cm, 1.41 kg

'In briefly reflecting on a volume as compendious as this one it is needless to say how much of interest and value it contains that I haven't been able even to allude to. The centurial significance of the Cambridge History of English Literature, 1660-1780, its status as the first of its kind since George Saintsbury and his Peace of the Augustans, only furthers the importance of Richetti's collection.' Michael McKeon, SEL-Studies in English Literature

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 marketplace 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.

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.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: c 1500 to c 1800 [DSBD], Literary studies: general [DSB]