This document provides an overview of several major writers from the Neoclassical period in England, including their works. It discusses Jonathan Swift's poetry and prose works such as Gulliver's Travels and A Modest Proposal. Daniel Defoe's novels including Robinson Crusoe and Moll Flanders are summarized. The works of Alexander Pope, Joseph Addison, Richard Steele, and other poets and prose writers of the period are briefly outlined. The development of genres like novels, poetry, drama and prose forms during this era is also summarized.

1. The Neo-classical Age: Major
Writers of the Age
Vaidehi Hariyani
Department of English, MKBU

2. Johnathan Swift’s Poetry
• Larger extent recreations; old verses to his
friends; squibs and lampoon on his political
and private enemies; on Partridge the quack
astrologer.
• Cadenus and Vanessa (1712-13) which deals
with his affection for Esther Vanhomrigh.
• His favourite meter is octosyllabic Couplet.
• He lapses of taste, when he becomes coarse
and vindictive;

3. Jonathan Swift Prose:
• The Battle of the Books: 1704
• The first noteworthy book
• The theme of the book is the dispute between
ancient and modern author
• Half allegorical and mock-heroic setting
• The battle is in the library.
• A Tale of a Tub:
• Written in 1696 and published in 1704
• Religious allegory

4. • The story of three brothers, Peter, who stands for the
Roman Catholic Church, Jack represents the
Dissenters, and Martin, the personification of the
Anglican and Lutheran Churches.
• A Modest Proposal:
• Published in 1729
• Gulliver’s Travels:
• Published in 1726
• Divided into four parts
• An allegory
• Swift as a satirist

5. Daniel Defoe’s Prose
• His prose can be divided into two groups:-
• A.)Political Writings – Wrote Political tracts
and Pamphlets.
• The best known of his ‘The True-born
Englishman’ (1701)
• Defoe is vigorous, acute, and has a fair
command of irony and invective.

6. Daniel Defoe:
• Robinson Crusoe: 1719
• Moll Flanders: 1722
• The full title of Moll Flanders gives an apt summary of
the plot: "The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous
Moll Flanders, Etc. Who was born in Newgate, and during
a life of continu'd Variety for Threescore Years, besides
her Childhood, was Twelve Year a Whore, five times a
Wife (whereof once to her own brother), Twelve Year a
Thief, Eight Year a Transported Felon in Virginia, at last
grew Rich, liv'd Honest and died a Penitent. Written from
her own Memorandums."
• Both are picaresque novels dealing with different issues
of society

7. • The Duncan Campbell(1720)
• Memoirs of a Cavalier(1720)
• Captain Singleton (1720)
• Roxana(1724)
• A New Voyage round the world (1725)
• Due to the speed of production, the novel is
loose and unequal. The style is a bit
unpolished.

8. Addison and Steele:
• On April 12, 1709, Steel published the first number
of The Tatler, a periodical. It finished on January
1711.
• Addison contributed in the work.
• Steel began The Spectator, which was issued daily.
• Total number of essays 555
• Addison wrote 274 and Steel wrote 236.
• The Guardian, 175 in total and Addison contributed
51.
• A very famous character of Sir Roger de Coverley in
Coverley paper.

9. Other Prose- Writers
• John Arbuthnot (1667-1735)
• Lord Bolingbroke (1678-1751)
• George Berkeley (1685- 1753)
• Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689- 1762)
• Early of Shaftesbury (1671-1713)

10. Poetry

11. Alexander Pope
• Medium of the Poem – The Heroic Couplet
• Great Metical Skill
• Variation of speed and tone
• Delicacy of touch

12. • Alexander Pope:
• An Essay on Criticism (1711)
• Didactic poem
• Windsor Forest (1713)
• The Rape of the Lock (1712) brought him fame as a
poet.

13. • Pope also published philosophical poems and the
most famous of all is An Essay on Man. This poem
discusses about man’s place of universe.
• An Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot (1735)
• Most direct autobiographical work
• Addressed to his friend John Arbuthnot
• The Dunciad
• Fierce attack on John Dennis who attacked on Pope’s
An Essay on Criticism.

14. Other Poets
• Mathew Prior (1664-1721)
• John Gay (1685-1732)
• Edward Young (1683- 1765)
• Sir Samuel Garth (1661-1719)
• Lady Winchilsea (1661 – 1720)
• Ambrose Philip (1675-1749)

15. The Age of Transition:

16. • Samuel Johnson:
• London (1738) poem
• The poem describes the various problems of London,
including an emphasis on crime, corruption, and the
squalor of the poor.
• The poem begins:
Though grief and fondness in my breast rebel,
When injured Thales bids the town farewell,
Yet still my calmer thoughts his choice commend,
I praise the hermit, but regret the friend,
Resolved at length, from vice and London far,
To breathe in distant fields a purer air,
And, fixed on Cambria's solitary shore,
Give to St Davidone true Briton more.

17. • Dictionary (1747-55) brought him fame
• The Vanity of Human Wishes: (1749), poem
Let Observation with extensive View,
Survey Mankind from China to Peru;
Remark each anxious Toil, each eager Strife,
And watch the busy scenes of crouded Life;
Then say how Hope and Fear, Desire and Hate,
O'erspread with Snares the clouded Maze of Fate,
Where Wav'ring Man, betray'd by vent'rous Pride,
To tread the dreary Paths without a Guide;
As treach'rous Phantoms in the Mist delude,
Shuns fancied Ills, or chases airy Good.

18. • Johnson’s prose:
• The Lives of the Poets in 1777-81, introduction of the
lives of 52 poets
• The Rambler is a periodical, 1750-52
• Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia, 1759, in order to pay
for his mother’s funeral.
• A journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, 1775, a
travel book.

19. • Thomas Gray:
• Ode on a Distance Prospect of Eton College, 1747
• Elegy written in a Country Churchyard, 1751
• Pindaric Odes, 1757
• William Blake:
• Poetical Sketches, 1783
• Songs of Innocence, 1789
• The Book of Thel, 1790
• The French Revolution, 1791, and America, 1793,
show the contemporary political conflict-about
political freedom and also freedom from the
restrictions of convention and established morality.

20. • Songs of Experience, 1794
• The First Book of Urizen, 1794
• The Book of Ahania, 1795
• The Book of Los, 1795
• The Song of Los, 1795

21. Development of Novel in 18th
Century
• Expansion of Reading Public
• Growth of a New Middle Class
• Different Position of Women
• Economic Reasons
• Publishing at its widespread

22. Four Wheels of novels:
• Samuel Richardson
• Pamela or Virtue Rewarded, 1740
• Clarissa Harlowe, 1747-48
• Sir Charles Grandison, 1753-54
• Henry Fielding
• Joseph Andrews, 1742
• Tom Jones, 1749, the greatest novel
• Amelia, 1751, last novel

23. • Tobias George Smollet
• The Adventures of Roderick Random, 1748
• The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle, 1751
• The Adventures of Ferdinand, Count Fathom, 1753
• The Adventures of Sir Launcelot Greaves, 1762
• The Expedition of Humphry Clinker, 1771
• Laurence Sterne
• The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gent,
1760-67
• A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy,
1768

24. The Development of Literary Forms
• Poetry
• Drama
• Prose

25. Poetry
• 1.) The Lyric – disappeared
• 2.) The Ode – Pindaric Ode (Very few)
• 3.) The Satiric – Common and High Quality
• 4.) Narrative Poetry
• 5.) The Pastoral

26. Drama
• Restoration Comedy was banned
• Nothing of any merit took its place
• Steele’s comedy plays are a bit for survival
type.

27. Prose
• A.) Rise of the Periodical Press
• B.) Rise of the Essay
• C.) Prose Narrative
• D.) Miscellaneous Prose

28. Activity 1
ryt
Try

29. Cmoedy
Comedy

30. Ronyi
Irony

31. gedytra
Tragedy

32. Restoration Comedy
• Restoration comedies are English plays written
and performed between 1660 and 1710, the
"Restoration" period.
• Also known as "comedy of manners“.
• These works are known for their rude, explicit
depictions of sex and extramarital affairs.
• Some 500 plays survive, though only a handful
of them are performed today, and few
playwrights have achieved lasting fame.

33. Leading Restoration Comedies
William Wycherley (The Country Wife, 1675)
George Etherege (The Man of Mode, 1676)
Aphra Behn (The Rover, 1677)
John Vanbrugh (The Relapse, 1696)
William Congreve (The Way of the World, 1700).

34. Sentimental Comedy
• A dramatic genre of the 18th century,
denoting plays in which middle-class
protagonists triumphantly overcome a series
of moral trials.
• Such comedy aimed at producing tears rather
than laughter.
• It has its roots from Tragedy

35. Leading Writers
• Colley Cibber
• George Farquhar, with their respective plays
Love’s Last Shift (1696) and The Constant
Couple (1699).
• The best-known sentimental comedy is Sir
Richard Steele’s The Conscious Lovers (1722),

36. Anti-Sentimental Comedy
• Reaction against Sentimental Comedy
• The function of comedy is to provide laughter
and wit not the tears but sentimental comedy
make viewers shed in tears.
• Comedy is not for preaching or give moral
lessons it should provide fun.
• Richard Sheridan and Oliver Goldsmith are the
pioneers of this comedy.

37. • Richard Sheridan
• The Rivals, 1774
• The School for Scandal, 1777

38. • Oliver Goldsmith:
• The Traveller, 1764, a poem
• The Deserted Village, 1770, a poem
• The Hermit, a ballade
• Elegy on the Death of a Mad Dog, witty
• Drama: two prose comedies:
• The Good Natur’d Man, 1768
• She Stoops to Conquer, 1773
• Prose:
• The Citizen of the World, 1759
• The Vicar of Wakefield, 1766, novel