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Miz Alvtexto Traduzido Basee
Miz Alvtexto Traduzido Basee
The new century threw aside the strange plots and ideas of heroic
tragedy and turned to reasonable things, DANIEL DEFOE described the
Great Plague1 of London in his Journal of the Plague Year (1722). The
plague broke out (badly) in 1665, when Defoe was only five, but he
obtained information about it from different places. His Robinson Crusoe
(1719) is a better and more famous book. This story is based on a real
event, Alexander Selkirk, a sailor who quarrelled with his captain, was
in fact put on the island ofjuan Fernandez, near Chile, and lived there
alone for four years. Defoe made a good story out of this event: indeed,
his book is almost a novel, and one of the first in English.
RICHARD STEELE
the books Swift supported his friend Temple by writing The Battle
of the Books (1704) on the side of the ancients. His Tale of a Tub
(1704) attacked religious ideas, and annoyed a large number of
readers. An example of his bitterness may be seen in A Modest
Proposal (1729), which contains the suggestion that the poor, who
needed money, should sell their children to the rich as food. This
kind of satire seriously accepts the evils of the world, and goes on to
show' their extreme results.
Swifts most famous satire, Gullivers Travels (1726), is in four
books. As a story it is popular with the young, who usually read the
first two books: Gullivers voyages to Lilliput (where the people are
six inches high) and Brobdingnag (where they are immense).
The Lilliputians fight wars (as the English do) which seem foolish.
The king of Brobdingnag, after hearing about Gullivers country,
thinks that the people there must be the most hateful race of creatures on earth.
DR SAMUEL JOHNSON
kinds of literary work, even if he did not like it. His famous Dictionary appeared in 1755 and went into five editions2 in his own life.
He was a kind of literary ruler, giving judgments on books and
authors like a god. Late in life he wrote his Lives of the Poets (177981) with decision and clear expression.
His own writings are less important than w'hat he said, and a
record of his conversations has fortunately been preserved for us in
the Life of Johnson (1791) by his friend JAMES BOSWELL. This is the
2
edition, printing of a book with (in 2nd and later editions)' corrections and
other changes.
4
3
seems to dislike order and common sense, but perhaps life does not
contain much of either. His Tristram Shandy (1760-7) made him
famous. We have to read about half the book before the hero,
Tristram, is bom. Sterne leaves the story whenever he likes, to give
opinions and write essays on any subject in the world. He adds a
few blank pages and rows of stars here and there to confuse his
readers as much as possible. In spite of this, he can draw clear
characters, such as the old soldier, Uncle Toby, and his servant,
Trim. Another work by Sterne, A Sentimental 7 Journey through
France and Italy (1768) is not so confused or confusing and is in
better prose. Yet even here Sternes strange mind looks out at us
from the pages.
sentimental, concerned with the feelings (rather than reason), especially
feelings of love.
J
better quality. She had a real feeling for nature. She causes interest
by describing unusual scenes and sights, such as moving walls and
secret passages, and strange events which she explains later. Her
greatest novel, The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794), is set in the Appenine
Mountains. The girl Emily is held in a castle by her aunts husband,
an evil character. The writer keeps up the readers interest by
describing one astonishing event after another. In a locked room
Emily sees a dark curtain and wants to look behind it. She is afraid
of what may be there, but she bravely pulls it aside. On a long seat
she sees a dead body, with blood on the floor below. She bends over
it, faints, and drops her lamp. Mrs RadcliiTe mixes this kind of
writing with fine descriptions of sunlight on the forests, mountains
dark in the evening time (the Alps attracted her greatly), and the
sweetness of wild flowers. From her descriptions, it is clear that she
looked directly at nature, and did not get her ideas from books. Her
other novels were Romance9of the Forest (1791) and The Italian (1797).
She also wrote A Sicilian Romance (1790) and An Italian Romance
(179 0 8l
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Roman Empire while he was making a tour of Italy in 1764. The first
book appeared in 1776, two more books in 1781, and the last three
in 1788. This is recognised as the greatest historical work in English
literature. In splendid prose it covers the events of thirteen centuries,
and relates the ancient to the modern world. It is clear and complete,
and usually correct. It deals with various religions, Roman law,