18th c.

LITERATURE

The Augustan Age and The “Rise of the Novel”

At the beginning of the century, we talk about Augustan authors or neo-classical (minimal
differences).
Towards the middle of the century (1640-60) we talk about The “Rise of the Novel”.

Main events of the period:

Þ 1685: Death of Charles II, accession of James II; Duke of Monmouth’s rebellion
crushed.
Þ 1688: “Glorious Revolution”, reign of William III and Mary II.
Þ Wars of Spanish and Austrian Succession, and Seven Years War (up until 1763).
Whoever controlled the seas, would control the rest.
Þ Reign of Queen Anne and George I, II and III (up until 1820). They dominated the
English throne. Instability of the country.
Þ 1707: Act of Union between Scotland and England, more political & one dominated
over the other.
Þ 1715: as a consequence of the …., part of the country thought the descendant of James
II had to get the throne back. The Jacobite Rebellion in favour of James Edward Stuart.
Þ Walpole’s ministry and fall – as a consequence of
Þ 1727: Death of Newton. Relevant because to many the most important scientist in the
history of science. Revolutionized science and applied the empirical method, which
was not the tradition at the time. New level and provided scientific prove of it. The
Enlightenment gave more importance to reason, and thus, science had an important
role.
Þ 1745: Second Jacobite Rebellion led by James Edward Stuart, called “the Young
Pretender”.
Þ Period of expansion – conquest of India, Quebec, gains in North America… usually at
the expense of Spain and France mainly.
Þ 1776: huge “golpe”, Independence of America (American Declaration of
Independence). Officially recognized in 1786 by peace of Paris.
Þ 1784: James Watt’s steam engine. Industrial revolution (not only during the Victorian
revolution).
Þ 1789: Fall of the Bastille and start of the French Revolution.
Þ 1793: Reign of Terror, execution of Louis XVI.
Þ 1794: “Treason Trials” in Britain – The government thought meetings/discussions to
talk about politics were dangerous and thus, any kind of revolutionary ideas were
considered treason.
Þ Nelson’s Victories against Napoleon – Nelson was considered an English hero, buried
like a king.
Þ 1798: Wolstonecraft’s The Wrongs of Woman & Wordsworth and Coleridge’s Lyrical
Ballads (the latter, considered the start of the Romantic Movement).
Þ 1800: Act of Union with Ireland (just a union of Parliaments). The Irish question is the
main issue in A Modest Proposal.

Introduction
• “’Long’ Eighteenth Century” 1688 – 1832
• Augustan Literature, Neo-classicism – People wanted to show the affluent position in
society, show off what they have. They made fortunes with trade and the exploitation
of colonies (tea, sugar, tobacco…) although not exclusively with that.

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Social and historical context

• Instability
o Jacobite Rebellions
o Alternation of Whig and Tory governments
o War on France; England dominated seas. The last time England was
successfully invaded at the “Battle of Hastings”. Geographically, England never
suffered the consequences of War, however, economically, it did.
• But on the other hand
o The Industrial Revolution – industry vs. agriculture. Became an immensely rich
country but the countryside was empty. Depopulation of large rural areas and
some areas were ravaged as a consequence of this revolution.
o England became prosperous through commerce.
Great majority of society is middle class, which happens at the beginning of the
18th century. Rise of the novel in hand with rise of the middle class and their
time for leisure. Coffee became something everybody wanted to have, thus the
beginning of the coffee shops.
The public sphere began around this century, to discuss contemporary issues,
including politics. Up until this period, everything was private, left in-doors.
Also, the rise of periodicals, which become popular and accessible. Confluence
of a number of things. Libraries also became accessible. When people read
more, they become more informed and thus, have more opinions and are able
to discuss about issues publicly. That lead to radicalism.
• Religion
o Newton’s innovations in science, which led to…
o Pope’s “Nature and Nature’s laws lay hid in night: God said, Let Newton be,
and all was light.” – nature was there, it obeyed to laws, scientific laws. It was
only that it took him to formulate and publish them. However, it doesn’t mean
religion is abandoned, it is a conjunction of both science and religion. God is
not completely forgotten. Praxis of religion is not abandoned.

The Augustan Style

• Augustan Age: ca. 1700-45
• Alexander Pope, Joseph Addison, Jonathan Swift.
• Virgil, Horace, Ovid, Juvenal
o Copying in form and style Latin works.
o Rules of decorum – rules of a certain situation in order to blend in. Social
moderation – knowing how to behave in each situation.
• BUT ideas of order and proportion…
o William Hogarth’s work – he shows the other side of the century (people drunk,
gambling…). London is the city that provided people with “prohibited”
activities (e.g. gambling). Shows the decline of lives and the city.

The periodical essay: Matters of Human Life

A new literary form that provided instruction and entertainment (both were intended at the
same time). They wrote about anything. In the atmosphere of the exchange of ideas. They were
incredibly successful, people loved it. Normally secular publics and not concerned about
political issues. They wanted to instruct in morals but also about women’s role in society. They
are not the first sex just because of their beauty, they are as clever and rational as any man, so
teach/educate them.

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October 5th
Jonathan Swift (1667-1745)
Swift was born in Dublin (Ireland) from newly settled English parents and was educated
according to Anglican principles. He was a critical figure and a controversial polemicist &
satirist, who had immense culture & knowledge. He liked to write to provoke and open
discussion, thus, the use of satire. He was a member of the “scribblers club”.
Swift suffered from Menière’s disease, which affects the ears, reason why he had bitter
humour. He never married, although he was popular and wrote works related to “Stella” – a
lover –.
IMP: He had many contradictions.
He was ordained into the Irish church and unsuccessfully, sought promotion in the Church of
England. At the beginning, he supported the Whigs and thought he would get a position as a
bishop. Disappointed, he went back to Dublin and became Dean of St Patrick’s, a
protestant/Anglican church. However, he supported the Catholics –the Irish poor–. At some
point, he became a Tory and Tories where expelled and Whigs reached power.
He defended Catholic Ireland because they were exploited by English landlords –called
absentee landlords–. Those landlords owned ¾ of land. However, they didn’t worry about those
lands. They had people –Irish– who worked the –Irish– land, but for no profits.
His writings are characterized by subtle ambiguity and oppositions and reversals. He writes
about political, religious and national issues of the Britain and Ireland of his time, more
concretely, about the cause of Irish Independence from English interference. He was a defender
of the cause of the Revolution.

*Church of England = Church of Ireland – the only difference is the place.

*The Examiner periodical – to develop and express his conservative Tory ideas.

The Drappier’s Letter (1724) – obviously public and popular indignation at English
indifference to Ireland. Attuned to a broad audience, it was written with a colloquial, mockery
and denunciatory tone. Occasionally, he appeals to rhetoric patriotism. In general terms, it
explains the injustice suffered by the Irish. Criticize the implementation of a new currency
which would devaluate the Irish way of life.
A Tale of a Tub (1704) – a father leaves the legacy to his 3 sons. It narrates the story of 3
brothers, each representing a religious faith: Roman Catholicism, Anglicanism and Calvinistic
Dissent. Example of Swift’s love of paradox.

A Modest Proposal (1729) – see work

Þ Monstruous proposal for the human consumption of the infant population + the Irish
dimension –Irish interests and sensibilities–.
Þ ¾ of Irish land owned by English.
Þ Absentee landlords (the English) The Irish had no profit, they were
o Industry in Ireland put to work down every day, but
o Raw material the English had the power.
o Trade with colonies
Þ Irish economy

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o Potato Famine 19th c. – has its roots on English exploitation.

Þ Ireland never developed – due to the English problem.
Þ Religion
o Anglicanism vs. Catholicism (Papists)
Þ Swift criticizes both:
o The English – they are exploiters.
o The Irish – because of their passivity.
Þ He provides:
o One provocative proposal “modest proposal” (satire) à eat the children.
o One serious proposal à marked in the text
October 8th
Þ Within the satire – devour
o Metaphorically: eat the parents.
o Literally: eat the children
Þ Paralipsis: a rhetorical device in which it is explained that some points are too obvious
to mention. A way of emphasizing a subject by apparently passing over it. That is what
happens with the serious proposal.

Gulliver’s travels (1726)

• Very angry satire against what he saw was wrong with the world. A strong social
criticism.
• Satire against political and cultural institutions of the 18th c. Britain.
• Episodic plot: no sequence, you could move them around and the story wouldn’t
change. Episodes not linked by causality, it could be read in whatever order.
• Gulliver is an English surgeon who rises to be a ship’s captain. He is well-educated,
proud of his national origins and informed both professionally and politically.
• 4 parts:
o Part 1 Lilliput: Gulliver shipwrecked near Sumatra and made captive by a race
that is 6 inches tall (very small).
§ Lilliputians (small) vs. Swift (giant) to compare different issues in
England – for some it might be a bigger issue than for others. He is a
giant = a satiric image of the inflated status.
§ They find in Gulliver’s pockets: a watch, loose silver coins and gold à
time & money = the modern Englishman credo.
§ Political allegory of reigns Queen Anne and George I.
o Part 2 Brobdingnag: situated near N. America.
§ People are 12 times his size. The turns have changed.
§ Gulliver still prototype of 18th c. Englishman.
o Part 3 A voyage to Laputa, Balnibarbi, Luggnagg, Glubbdubdrib and Japan.
Gulliver is captured by pirates and taken to the island of Laputa.
§ Criticizing the excessive rationalism, excessive belief in science and
experiments = dangerous.
§ Criticism against the learning of the Royal Society.
§ The wisest men have no practical sense of how to live in the real world.
o Part 4 A voyage to the Country of the Houyhnhnms. Gulliver is a victim of
mutiny.
§ Utopia of pure reason, men are measured against impossible standards.
§ Rational horses vs. nasty monkey-like Yahoos (humans).
• Gulliver ends up in England, where he talks to his horses and tries to reform the Yahoos.
• It has no real plot:

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o Union of political allegory, mock utopia, moral fable, parody of travel books,
of scientific works…
o Swift defined man not as rational, but as capable of reason – different things.
o His misanthropy (misogyny) and irony may have been misunderstood.

18th CENTURY POETRY

Introduction
• Goldsmith, Dryden, Johnson…
• Tripartite division of the century
o First half – scientific to emotional, dominated by Pope.
o Middle of the century – sentimental, philosophical poetry.
o End – movement towards the Romantic period, morbid and intense poetry.
Characterized by stress and sensibility. Poets like William Collins, Thomas
Gray, Christopher Smart…
• Variety of themes:
o Mark Akenside, Hymn to Science.
o Satirical poetry, landscape poetry, pastoral conventions.
• Huge influence of one of the greatest poets: Milton – master of poetry –.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744)

• First writer to make a living out of his writings. Particularly through his translation of
classics (Latin).
• Very peculiar and personal poetry but at the same time pays a lot of attention to form.
• He was a Catholic, quite unusual. It meant being underprivileged at the time. Simply
being tolerated, not being prosecuted only.
• Suffered from poor health and physique.
• Target of cruel attacks for different reasons (catholic, writer…) – some of them
published.
• His poetry is personal and impassioned, attention to classical form.

Major works
• Essay on Criticism (1711) – polished epigrammatic couplets of the main critical ideas
of the time.
• The Rape of the Lock (1712-14)
• Translations of Homer’s Illiad and Odyssey
• The Dunciad (1728) – commenting on people he considers idiots. Satirises “Grub
Street” scribblers or hack writers (poor quality writers). “Grub” means low level of life.
• Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot (1735)
• Essay on Man (1734)

Pope’s use of the heroic couplet – central to his poetry. Sequence of two lines of verse rhyming
in couplets. Traditionally used in heroic poetry. It’s end-rhymed and end-stopped (no
enjambment, the metrical line ends at a grammatical boundary or break). There may be an
exception every now and then. Iambic sequence (weak-strong syllables). Many words in
English are iambic. Made of ten syllables each line following this structure – pentameters (5

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feet = 10 syllables). It may be monotonous, so Pope goes a bit further by varying in his ideas
and alternates within the length of the words. He makes it appear epigraphs (grammatic lines).

Essay on Man (1734) – see work

Main ideas:
Þ Chain of Being – medieval times, God is at the top and then there’s a number of celestial
beings and then we move on to the Earth (man, animals, plants… following this order).
Þ Reference to Newton’s science.
October 15th
Developed:
Þ All organized in a hierarchy: chain of being. Each sphere/level has a specific item.
Different beings on each level & there’s always aggravation. Man is in the middle, hell
at the bottom. In addition, we can only understand our sphere. However, because we
are rational, we think or believe we’re the creators & the lords.
Þ It is addressed to Henry Bolingbroke, a Tory politician, who had to go into exile to
France.
Þ It “explore[s] the relationship of humankind to the Newtonian Universe” – influence
on science –
o Man in relation to universe, himself, society & happiness.
o The “Great Chain of Being”.
Þ Rationalistic optimistic philosophy – end of epistle 1: “whatever is, is right” (optimistic
view). Milton says the same.
Þ Pope says the world and men are imperfect. If they have been created by God, why did
God do that? Pope says he knows there are problems and issues, but all of them are part
of God’s plan –optimistic philosophy–.

The Rape of the Lock (1712-14) – see work

Þ Satire, epic poetry, pessimistic tone.
Þ Mock heroic – as if she was one of those heroes getting ready for battle.
Þ Make a very trivial incident into an epic theme, a serious matter.
Þ A poem on Lord Petre’s cutting of a lock from miss Arabela Fermor’s hair, written to
laugh the two families out of the quarrel that resulted.
Þ Five cantos in which Belinda’s passion and mockery of femininity are represented.
Þ The background is a real event that happened in the sphere of a social class. Arabella
is Belinda & John Caryll (a mutual friend) is also present.
Þ The lock was stolen from her.
Þ Catholic women – contradictions
o Retirement – being a good Catholic, they had to display themselves in order to
find a good husband.
o Socioeconomic value
Þ Reference to the machinery = the God’s that protect the hero. Pope satirizes that and
refers to the little creatures (animals or non-human beings) around her that help in the
action.
Þ Emerge of commodity culture due to mercantile expansion – attention to the products
she uses! Products brought from the colonies, only available for those with money.

Canto 1:
Lines 1-26 à very straightforward beginning.

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October 22nd
Commentary on Pope’s poem
October 26th

Samuel Johnson (1709-84)

• Centre of the literary club – leading figure.
• James Boswell à father-son relationship. He wrote Johnson’s biography The life of
Samuel Johnson (1791), one of the most famous biographies.
• He had deep Anglican and Tory convictions (conservative).
• Major works – known as Dr Johnson:
o Life of Mr Richard Savage (1744)
o The vanity of Human Wishes (1749)
o Irene, a Tragedy (1749)
o The Rambler (1750-52) – periodical.
o The Idler (1758-60) – periodical.
o A Dictionary of the English Language (1755) – he was also a linguist.
o The History of Rasselas, or Prince of Abissinia (1759)
o The Plays of William Shakespeare (1765)
o The Patriot (1774) – newspaper.
o A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland (1775)
o Lives of the Poets (1779-81)
• Hard worker, working long hours. Great variety of type of works. Any genre.
• He was almost always in debt.

The History of Rasselas, or Prince of Abissinia (1759)

Þ A novel to teach us morals, philosophy.
Þ What is the best call on life = the choice of life.
Þ Not easily classified as a novel* - philosophical novel?:
o It has an episodic plot: made up of episodes, if you move them, it doesn’t really
change much.
*explain that if we call it novel.
Þ The protagonist is Rasselas, 26 years old. Everything is given to him.
Þ Happy valley = superficial perfection. Rasselas is tired of it and says there has to be
something else. So, he goes to Egypt accompanied by his siter Nekayah, attendant
Pekuah and the philosopher Imlac.
Þ They study the various conditions of men: hedonism, stoicism, pastoral life, rural
isolation, hermit life and living according to nature – these are the debates, the “choices
of life”.
Þ Chapters 30-35: They visit the Pyramids in Cairo. They question the soul, does it die
with the body?

October 29th

The journey provides an excuse or an opportunity to learn. They start the journey as one type
of person but as they evolve, they change. Acquisition of experience, sometimes a life-
changing experience. Some events do provide the characters with more wisdom. In Gulliver’s
Travels there is no psychological analysis of the characters. The work is a travelodge. The
philosopher provides empty words, excessive philosophizing and reason.
The conclusion in which nothing is concluded, why? They cannot make a decision as to which
choice of life is better. Johnson’s definition of a “business of a poet” is to examine “not the

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individual, but the species”. Those individual lives are useful so that they provide of examples.
Also, “the interpreter of nature and legislator of mankind” is a business of a poet.

They were a number of influences on Johnson (see below). In particular, he constantly refers
to the vanity of human wishes, always in the discussion. We constantly need a new pursuit.
Apart from the one mentioned mentioned:

• Montesqueieu, Lettres Persones (1717)

• Jeronimo Lobo – portuguesse, A voyage to Abyssinia
• His poem The Vanity of Human Wishes ()
• The fame of the oriental tale: “fairy-tale exoticism and allegoricism, an escape from the
“age of reason”, from Grub Street and from the British weather”.

Historical and personal context of Rasselas

• England and France at war over America
o Seven years’ War
o 1756-63: affect.
• Illness and death of his mother.
• SJ in The Rambler: we want something, we obtain it and are satisfied. However, we
begin to desire something else. Johnson says we do that in vain, although we can’t stop
doing it. Very IMP in Johnson’s works.

November 2nd
CONCLUSION – there is no such thing as the universal choice of life. It’s meant to be an
individual choice. Additionally, our wishes might be too ambitious.
One should be “contented to be driven along the stream of life”. Here, Imlac knows that
ambitions are normally not accomplished and that it is better to direct one’s course “to a
particular sort”. Happiness has not the same implications for everyone, that’s why it is an
individual choice.
Imlac = philosophical talking & somewhat expresses Johnson’s ideas.

Non-fiction prose
• James Boswell’s Life of Johnson (1791-99)
o Represents Johnson in a human way, defects included.
o Boswell was criticized because of his inaccuracy, he couldn’t possibly
remember every conversation.
• Edward Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776-1788)

THE JACOBIN NOVEL (1780-1805)

• The term was coined by Gary Kelly in the 20th c., not contemporary in the 1790s. It is
related to the extremist supporters of the French Revolution (1789).
• The “Johnson circle” applied the dissenting method of truth-seeking.
• Jacobin novel, philosophical or thesis novels.
• Revolutionary ideas:
o Male writers: political ideas.
o Female writers: included politics, sentimentality, and autobiographical
elements.

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• Authors: William Godwin, Mary Wollstonecraft, Thomas Holcroft, Robert Bage,

Elisabeth Inchbald and Robert Imlay.

* To dissent = to disagree with the different practices of the Anglican Church.

November 5th
Mary Wollstonecraft

She had a peculiar life. She married William Godwin, though she had relationships with 2 other
men: Henry Fuseli (artist) and Gilbert Imlay (who left her pregnant with Fanny Imlay, then
adopted by Godwin). Even though they opposed to marriage, they married.
We’ve jumped to the end of the century (1790s). When they (Mary and William) started a
relationship, whose fruits was future Mary Shelley. Two of the prominent thinkers were living
under the same roof and both influenced one another. She was very much interested in
philosophy. Very passionate and emotional. She dies 10 days after giving birth, complications
of labour.
Women are also responsible for the situation of women. We have to leave behind those
idealized and romantic vision.
She attempted suicide twice. Writer of works of sentiment and Travelodge.

• Mary, a Fiction (1788) – the education of women, a proper education. That way, they’ll
be able to live their own lives and stand on their own feet.
• A Vindication of the Rights of Men (1791) – the rights of society. Men were not gender
conscious. The situation of both sexes was different. It is a reflection of her own
character. She wrote it in response to Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France.
She discusses the political implications on responding to Burke’s defense of tradition.
Against Burke’s reflections.
• A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) – here she talks about the social
implications. She addressed specifically the concerns or issues that concern women in
particular. Discusses libertarian social principles: right to vote, laws of matrimony (wife
property of the husband), the institution of marriage…

In both works she blames women for excessive sensibility and idealization approaching
matrimony. We have to break from these conventions and the earlier we start learning,
being independent, abandoning idealization of romance and sensibility, the better.

Maria, or the Wrongs of Woman (1798)

Edited and send for publication by Godwin and we can observe his influence on certain parts
of the novel.

William Godwin

Most accomplished of the Jacobin writers. Godwin was considered a very cold philosopher,
the precursor of anarchism although he never used this term. He defended the abolition of
government. By means of behaving rationally, applying our rational capacities, we can do it
without government. Man is capable of perpetual improvement –faith in rationality–. He,
together with the others mentioned, were against the “Old corruption”, an economic system
based on differential treatment and dealings in the legal, finance, etc. Voting system was the
target because if you lived in an area where someone important lives, they had a system of

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buying and selling votes in order for people to keep working the land. Excessive rationalistic
ideas of Godwin that influenced her daughter.
He wrote An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice (1793), where he expands those
philosophical and political ideas. Then, all this is condensed in a novel: Things as They Are, or
The Adventures of Caleb Williams (1794).
Jacobin writers started their own academies, dissenting academies. Their vision was opposed
to Burke’s ideas in Reflections on the Revolution in France (1789).

• Caleb Williams, or Things as they Are (1794) – contemporary problems of society. The
Treason Trials of 1794, some of his friends were accused in count for treason. People
in Britain were worried about debating political ideas, so they started those trials. A
famous sentence in the preface “Terror was the order of the day”. Discussing political
ideas. At the time, Habeas Corpus was suspended, meaning that a magistrate could
keep you in prison indefinitely. His writing are written very philosophically and coldly.
• The Travels of St Leon: A Tale of the Sixteenth Century (1799) – he started writing after
her death, with sentiment and emotion. He wrote about “domestic affections”,
discussing love that improves relationships. Also, the danger of isolation, society being
against you. Necromances: someone who deals with black magic, pursuing the
philosopher’s stone (never ending riches) and elixir of life (eternal youth). He succeeds
in getting both and thus, the danger of isolation. He controls knowledge and this idea
leads to isolation.
• The Memoirs of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1798). Huge
change in Godwin. From that point, family relations are important to the improvement
of the person.
• Fleetwood, or The New Man of Feeling (1805) – critique of emotionalism and of the
early factory system. Influenced by Rousseau’s “natural” education. Relevance of
landscape: Wales and Switzerland.

November 30th
THE RISE OF THE NOVEL

• Contemporary term
• The most popular genre at the beginning of the 18th c. = poetry.
• Appearance of the novel as a new genre – appearance & rise of the middle class as a
consequence of trade and commerce, which allowed them to have a presence in society.
Their relevant past-time: reading & writing.
• Art prose fiction developed greatly between 1720-80
o Its main purpose/f(x) was to instruct and entertain –– mainly middle-class
readers.
• We’re talking about authors making fiction, art, simply creating stories.
• There is a stress on life, made-up characters, frequently about ordinary people but they
are also realistic. No mythology or fairy tales.
• Why was it so popular? Because many more people could read and write, and they had
the time for it. Additionally, the f(x)
• Forerunners of the novelist
o Female writers, such as Aphra Ben, Deleriviere or Haywood.
o Jonathan Swift
+ Samuel Richardson focused on the psychology of his characters.

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December 3rd
The four “Fathers of the Novel” = Defoe, Richardson, Sterne & Fielding.

Daniel Defoe (1660-1725)

• He was a dissenter, a branch of Puritans.
• He was good putting together features of already existing and giving them a new
impulse.
• Sanders argues that Defoe is not really a pioneer, although he perfected certain
techniques and elements from here and there, such as he did in Robinson Crusoe (1719).
• Another work: A Tour through the Whole Island of Great Britain (1726). – travel
writing, a popular genre. Theme: pride in the growth and prosperity on UK.
• 1st person confessional narrative by Puritans (tradition) – adapted by Defoe.
o A narrative of someone explaining their relationship with God. Intimate,
religious narrative, long-standing tradition.
§ Adapts this tradition with an impression on Realism.
(Not just dealing with religion, but with realistic events).
Defoe’s novels:
Þ Very crude, matter-of-fact style. Not normally dealing with cause-effect.
Þ Rambling & somewhat disorganized plot. His humour and humanity make him special.
Þ Show essential optimism. End: optimistic note.
Þ Protestant work-ethic manifest in both novels.
o Defoe sees the capacity for survival as a major virtue.
o Morality questioned in Moll Flanders.
* Robinson Crusoe based on a true story.

Robinson Crusoe (1719)

Narrates the story of a young man that wishes to go to sea. In an act of rebellion against his
parents, he goes to the sea as a merchant in order to make money. In one of his voyages, he
shipwrecks and is left stranded on an island (deserted).
Crusoe’s self-explanatory time on the island, his cultivation of the land and his soul, and his
later imposition of his codes of belief and action on Friday à processes of European
colonization. At one point, Crusoe makes himself the king, although he allows a “Liberty of
Conscience” which tolerates pagan, Protestant and Catholic alike.
He pursues money. Crusoe = utilitarian. Emotional ties have a minor role, unless those
relationships are focused on economic matters.

Different ways to understand Robinson Crusoe:

• Tabula rasa: Locke’s idea. The island is like a tabula rasa, he changes and transforms
the islands through different experiences. He learns everything on the island.
• Fable of survival: if you work for yourself, you improve yourself.
• He tries to replicate the social order that he left behind in England.

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The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders (1722)

Moll is born in prison and dies in financial and emotional happiness. In between, she has a
string of lovers and husbands and is imprisoned for thieving and transported to Virginia.
It is a tale of upward social and moral progress (difficult). Moral is best taught through a fable
– “docere et delectare”.
A “moll” is slang of the time was a woman of low repute & “Flanders”, a Flemish woman in
London’s brothels.
Moll is interested in getting married for gain rather than love = “Matrimonial Whoredom”.
Jilted by a man, she ends up marrying his brother, although he dies. A few years later, she
marries her own brother.
She is aware of her sinfulness before marrying her fifth husband. This marriage is “a safe
harbour, after the stormy voyage of life”.
Moll’s spiritual rebirth as a penitent, after having confessed to a priest:
• Marks beginning of a new life which repeats features of the old
o She returns to Virginia as a transported felon with her Lancashire husband but
all has changed.

Other writings
- The Shortest Way with the Dissenters (1702) – transparent irony, but misinterpreted. It
suggested extermination of Dissenters, and Defoe was persecuted.
- A Journal of the Plague Year (1722) – the year is the last outbreak of bubonic plague
in 1665. It was written “by a Citizen who continued all the while in London” as a
warning and example of endurance and of spiritual reassessment.
- The Fortunate Mistress, or Roxana (1724) – declines from respectability, partly due to
the ill-treatment of the men on whom she relies; partly through her own selfishness as
she refuses marriage.
December 10th

Laurence Sterne (1713-1768) – self-study

Re-invents the novel. Very innovative, uses conventions from other authors and turns them
upside down. He demolishes conventions.

Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (1760-67) – the first novel in English about
writing and personality.
• Metafiction – because it talks about how a novel works, disclosing the inside of the
novel.
• It is a fictional autobiography with a 1st person narrator. Addresses the reader several
times, demands his participation.
• The progress is not linear but digressive, because that is exactly how life works. Very
little plot. Digressions are innovative and interrupt the chronology.
• Psychology is not accountable.
• A novel on how the mind works.
• Characters do not represent types but human beings, complex and ordinary, presented
in a kind, benevolent way.
• Technical machinery of the novel form is apparently kept but relationship between the
form and narrative conventions is ironic and self-conscious.

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• Sterne subverts the assumption that individual experience can be contained in a literary
form and that there is a common perspective on reality.
• Tristram Shandy continues the tradition of the “learned wit”.

A sentimental Journey through France and Italy (1768) – travel narrative. Adopts the travel
persona to narrate his travels in France, NOT Italy. More humorous work. Traveler Parson
Yorick, literary persona of Sterne himself. France is at war with England, he forgets, he is not
interested in that. He is interested in connection, not interested in barriers, but in bringing
people together, especially good with women.
• Theme: communication of love through barriers of culture, race, language, etc. as well
as physical or geographical.
• The chronological account of an individual’s changing moral and emotional self-
interpretation.
• Parson Yorick sets off for France unaware that both countries are at war.

The emergence of sensibility

o Sense” for English 18th century, rather than “reason” – practical reason, common sense,
related rather than opposed to sensibility; capacity for moral feeling .
o “Sensibility” became more aesthetic and sentimental, it came to be contrasted with
sense, as in the title of Austen’s novel
o “Sense:” Locke’s influential account of the mind; reliable knowledge of real world
comes from sense impressions
o “Moral sentiment” = philanthropic benevolence, theory of natural social sympathy and
of subordination of the self to social conditions.
o “Sensibility” degenerated into “sensiblerie” – J. W. von Goethe’s The Sorrows of
Young Werther (1774)
o also into morbid meditation:
o Edward Young’s Night Thoughts (1742-45)
o Thomas Gray’s Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard (175

Henry Fielding (1707-1754)

Voice of the narrator is present everywhere, authorian narrator and intrusive (constantly
intervening on the action and the characters).
Theatres closed in London and thus, he became a novelist, but up until that point he was a
dramatist, a poet… He was a lawyer.
Reacts to the things S. Richardson (sexual virtue*) and attacked his simplistic morality (*).
Virtue doesn’t need to be rewarded.
Fielding had a great taste for humour and humour psychology as well as charity. Fielding
provides another vision of the 18th century, with him you have another side of the century.
You’ve got people having a good time together, not explicit but evident. At odds with reason
and refinement. A lot of slapstick humour – physical and gesture reactions, silly

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accidents…making the person appear ridiculous. Pope vs Fielding (different perspectives/sides

of the 18th century).
Fielding finds Pamela morally pretentious, because he hates someone pretending to be
someone you’re not. Hates hypocrisy. So, he writes Shamela, where he parodies Pamela. In
Shamela, Fielding ridicules Pamela’s lack of education.

The History of the Adventures of Joseph Andrews and of his Friend Mr. Abraham Adams
(1742) – short Joseph Andrews
It begins as a parody of Richardson’s Pamela. He uses Pamela’s brother, Joseph Andrews.
However, he introduces Parson Adam, a very well-constructed character and abandons the idea
of a parody and gets them on a journey. Attempted seduction of Joseph from employer, Lady
Booby, Joseph flees away.
He writes about the Picturesque, a different/peculiar genre (breaking conventions; innovative):
Þ Characters coming from low sectors of society
Þ Pranks for the fun of it: silly episodes.
Þ A lot of humour
Þ Episodic plot: move from one incident to another. It doesn’t really matter. There’s “see-
saw pattern” – implies that there’s rising action and then there’s falling action, where
after the action there’s calm, a period of reflection. This period coincides with the
characters arriving at a certain place.
Þ Extremely simply plot
Þ Central figure (Joseph) + a friend or confidante (Parson Adams: extremely well-read
and educated but not worldly wide. He thinks everyone is charitable.)
Þ Journey on some pretext

Characterised as a “comic romance” – romance as equivalent to novel. Realistic protagonists

versus the traditional romance, which contained mythical creatures and others. Everyday
normal life. JA is made up of four books. He defines what the novel genre is for him, what he
understands a novel is and he uses the preface and the chapter 1 of books 1, 2 & 3 (there’s a 4th
one) to the “theory of the novel”.
Fielding’s point is that you don’t need to be sexually virtuous to be good-hearted and charitable.
Charity is linked to the Latin word caritas, which is translated as love. There’s a fine line a
continuity between the two terms, an interconnection.
Fielding uses irony, coarse physical humour, bathos (descent from the sublime to the ridiculous
– to ridiculing the mock heroic) and comic set-piece situations.
At the end, they all come together at some place.
* The only one who helps him is the postillion, one of the lowest ranks. Another example,
when they arrive at an inn, the maid Betty is the only one who helps Joseph by calling a Doctor.
They are the good-hearted. Betty is fires by the owner of the inn and eventually becomes a
prostitute.

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Main issues in Joseph Andrews:

• Parson Adams: is he the hero of the novel? Is there any development of Joseph? Parson
is an outstandingly good man and doesn’t understand why everybody doesn’t do the
same.
• Plot: journey, episodic plot and “Pamela” frame.
• Morality: sometimes your intention is good, but your result is not. What’s better? The
intention or to have good results?
December 14th
Themes in Joseph Andrews:
• Nature of goodness – a good Christian is defined by his charity, by his actions. You
may have very good intentions, but the results can be negative.
o Charity and good vs. grace and faith. If you have grace, you’re going to be
saved. Don’t rely on grace, defends Parson Adams, you need to work on your
salvation. For him, charity is it.
o Nobility of heart vs. nobility of birth. Being earned by your actions vs being
born in a noble family. It doesn’t mean that because you are born in a wealthy
family, you are a good-hearted person, but you have to earn it through actions.
No correspondence between class and charity.
• Appearance vs reality
• Lust vs. chastity
• City living vs. retirement in the country

Problem? Joseph Andrews and Parson Adams seem to be from lower sectors of society, of
obscure birth. However, it is eventually revealed that both are from noble birth. At least Tom
Jones and Joseph Andrews.

Þ Parson Adams = humane, a mixture, lovely character vs Joseph = flat, not interesting.

* What was to be a continuation of Shamela, changed to be an independent novel because

Parson Adams changes Fielding’s vision on the novel.

The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling (1749)

With its own plot, more complex and better constructed.
His ancestry is not known, he had been abandoned and is adopted by Squire Allworthy. He
falls in love with Sophia Weston, Allworthy’s niece. Tom is expelled from the house due to
one of his affairs with a servant, Molly Seagrim. Squire knows Tom is good-hearted but he is
tired of his adventures with women.
December 17th
Tom is sexually promiscuous, while Sophia is virtuous.
Squire Allworthy is noble but also kind and charitable.

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Tom is revealed to be the son of Bridget Allworthy. Nobility of birth discovered at the end,
meaning that you can have nobility of birth as well as nobility of heart.
Partridge accused of being Tom’s father. Bridget Allworthy is noble and abandons Tom, who
is kind. On the contrary, his brother is despicable and black inside.
A nobleman tries to rape Sophia.

Characters are described externally, no internal psychological narrative. The plot is highly
organized, logical and symmetrical.
• Nobility of heart vs. nobility of birth – being high-born does not guarantee of purity
and goodness.
• Country living (kindness) vs. city living (vice, corruption, gambling…).

Samuel Richardson
January 7th
He was a printer, married his employer’s daughter.
Watt’s book “The rise of the Novel” - An exploration of the issues that contributed to those
authors being considered the “fathers of the novel”.
Episodic plot? – move the episodes/chapters and the elements have no cause-consequence
effect so the story is not changed. Watt argues that Richardson uses the amatory formula (single
action/conflict).

Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded (1740) – story of a young maidservant, Pamela, whose mistress
dies. She is subjected at seduction by the new master, Mr B (a wealthy man). However, her
virtue is very strong, and she refuses and thus, is finally rewarded by marrying the son. The
letters show his dominance and pride, but also her vanity, calculation and half-acknowledged
affection for him.
Þ Epistolary novel
o Presentation of people in an immediate way
o Different points of view
o Richardson rushes the style too far trying to prove it is Pamela who writes
o Too many details
Þ Relationship of lovers has quality of romantic love
Þ Servant girls constituted an important part of the reading public.

Basic issues in Pamela:

à Morality
à Pamela: she may appear as a calculating and hypocritical figure rather than the heroine
she is intended to be.
à Letter writing: epistolary technique that has certain limitations.

Richardson’s success with modern criticism

The way he uses his writing to get inside the mind of the characters.

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He is very much in the spotlight of criticism today à formal complexity and types of
characterisation. Plot at a lower level.
Clarissa is deeper and more complex and as a character has less of a superior attitude than
Pamela. Clarissa = the epiphany of humble.

Clarissa, The History of a Young Lady (1747-48) – very long novel. She just wants to be
protected, reason why she falls to his arms, NOT because she is in love. Her own brother –
obsessed about controlling the property – and sister – because of her sister’s virtue (envy) –
are against her at some point.
Clarissa thinks he is going to protect her. However, Lovelace has other plans and ends up raping
Clarissa. He puts her in different houses in order to keep her captive and she realises she is a
captive. She even ends up in a brothel at some point.
Lovelace is at first interested in Clarissa’s sister, Arabella.
The family wants Clarissa to marry a powerful, selected suiter: Solmes. He is ridiculous.
In the end, Lovelace tricks Clarissa to run away with him.
• Classic amatory formula:
o Clarissa Harlowe, beautiful and wealthy.
o Many suitors but forced by family to marry rich but repulsive Solmes.
o Lovelace: originally intended for Arabella Harlowe.
Eventually, Lovelace drugs her and rapes her. Here, Clarissa’s decline begins. He is punished
and his death is lonely and repented.
Immensely tragical. Uniquely tragic plot.
Depth, large cast of characters – two sets of correspondents:
• Clarissa Harlowe and Anne Howe
confidants
• Lovelace and Belford
Christ-like death – Clarissa’s: she forgives everybody. Religious undertone evident.
• Upper, commercial middle classes
• Aristocracy
• But also their servants, and others:
o Criminal underworld (brothel) and lower middle classes.

Clarissa and Lovelace are unique in amatory narrative. They have psychological depth,
sociohistorical and moral complexity and rhetorical virtuosity
Harlowes and Lovelaces: complex network of connections.
Unique tragic nature of plot: they both die – the ending is between the two deaths. Why does
she have to die? Because there’s no social cure for what happens to her. Her character and
reputation are ruined.
Richardson thought the only possible ending was the one he wrote.
January 11th
Letter 1 – characterisation: brother and Clarissa.
Letter 2 – response to Miss Anna (her friend and confidant) that has asked her to fill in some
blanks on what has happened.
Letter XLI – he cares more about reputation, not that she has rejected him but the consequences
it will have.
Women had to be pure and virtuous for her reputation to be intact. However, men had more
freedom, it didn’t matter with whom they slept. When a woman reputation was ruined, nothing
could be done to “cure” it.
He is victimizing himself. Sentimentalism is used to his advantage.* This represents self-pity.
He uses swear words, curses, exclamations, etc. not a way of writing a woman would follow.
This style of writing is called “writing to the moment”.

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January 14th
18TH C. POETRY – TOWARDS ROMANTICISM: OLIVER GOLDSMITH &
THOMAS GRAY
Different to the Augustan Age.
Categorized as: prospect or survey poem, a subtype of poem. It is a commentary or reflection
on the land or landscape, usually socioeconomic criticism (though not always). I can also be
written from inspiration, praising the beauty.
The poet looks down at the landscape from a great height (usually).

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