18th century in literature  

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

(Difference between revisions)
Jump to: navigation, search
Revision as of 23:01, 3 November 2007
Jahsonic (Talk | contribs)
(→Background)
← Previous diff		 Revision as of 11:12, 28 January 2014
Jahsonic (Talk | contribs)

Next diff →
Line 1: Line 1:
 +[[Image:Therese Philosophe Original edition.jpg|thumb|right|200px|''[[Thérèse Philosophe]]'' ([[1748]]) was ''the'' bestseller of the [[French Enlightenment]]]]
 +[[Image:Honoré Gabriel Riqueti de Mirabeau, pained by Joseph Boze.jpg|thumb|right|200px|[[Comte de Mirabeau]]'s [[18th century literature|18th century story]] ''[[Le Libertin de qualité]]'' was brought to [[television]] in the [[late 20th century]] series ''[[Série rose: Les Chefs d’œuvre de la littérature érotique]]'']]
 +[[Image:Traité des trois imposteurs.gif|right|thumb|200px|''[[Traité des trois imposteurs]]'' by [[Anonymity in publishing|anonymous]] (date unknown, edition shown [[1777]])]]
{{Template}} {{Template}}
 +:All in all, literature was not so widespread as in the following century, since paper was still quite expensive, see [[cheap paper]].
[[Literature]] of the [[18th century]] refers to [[world literature]] produced during the [[18th century]]. The 18th century saw the development of the [[modern novel]] as literary genre, in fact many [[First novel in English|candidates for the first novel in English]] date from this period. Subgenres of the novel during the 18th century were the [[epistolary novel]], the [[sentimental novel]], [[Histories (history of the novel)|"histories"]], the [[gothic novel]] and the [[libertine novel]]. 18th Century Europe started in the [[Age of Enlightenment]] and gradually moved towards [[Romanticism#Art and literature|Romanticism]]. In the visual arts, it was the period of [[Neoclassicism]]. [[Literature]] of the [[18th century]] refers to [[world literature]] produced during the [[18th century]]. The 18th century saw the development of the [[modern novel]] as literary genre, in fact many [[First novel in English|candidates for the first novel in English]] date from this period. Subgenres of the novel during the 18th century were the [[epistolary novel]], the [[sentimental novel]], [[Histories (history of the novel)|"histories"]], the [[gothic novel]] and the [[libertine novel]]. 18th Century Europe started in the [[Age of Enlightenment]] and gradually moved towards [[Romanticism#Art and literature|Romanticism]]. In the visual arts, it was the period of [[Neoclassicism]].
-Although the [[modern novel]] as [[literary genre]] solidified, [[literacy]] rates were still very low as there was no primary education for the [[common man]]. +Although the [[modern novel]] as [[literary genre]] solidified, [[literacy]] rates were still very low as there was no [[primary education]] for the [[common man]]. As [[Resa L. Dudovitz]] notes in ''[[The Myth of Superwoman]]'', "a novel which sold well in the [[18th century in literature|eighteenth century]] - and even the most successful book rarely sold more than a few thousand copies - did so within a fairly closed circle of readers, many of whom as writers also participated in deciding the prevailing criteria of [[literary merit|literary excellence]], [...], by the mid-[[19th century in literature|nineteenth century]] [[cheap]]er [[edition]]s and improved access to reading material through subscriptions and in France, through reading rooms, pushed sales of a popular novel as high as 10,000 copies. Although critics continued to function as the [[arbiters of taste]], the critical [[elite]] could no longer claim literature to be their exclusive property."
The [[English novel]] became a popular form in the [[18th century]], with [[Daniel Defoe]]'s ''[[Robinson Crusoe]]'' ([[1719]]) and [[Samuel Richardson]]'s ''[[Pamela]]'' ([[1740]]). Another very popular form was the [[Gothic novel]] (''[[The Castle of Otranto]]'', 1764) and its European equivalents the [[roman noir]] in France and the [[Schauerroman]] in Germany. The [[English novel]] became a popular form in the [[18th century]], with [[Daniel Defoe]]'s ''[[Robinson Crusoe]]'' ([[1719]]) and [[Samuel Richardson]]'s ''[[Pamela]]'' ([[1740]]). Another very popular form was the [[Gothic novel]] (''[[The Castle of Otranto]]'', 1764) and its European equivalents the [[roman noir]] in France and the [[Schauerroman]] in Germany.
Line 8: Line 12:
Early European bestsellers were ''[[Julie, or the New Heloise]]'' by Rousseau and ''[[The Sorrows of Young Werther]]'' by Goethe. Early European bestsellers were ''[[Julie, or the New Heloise]]'' by Rousseau and ''[[The Sorrows of Young Werther]]'' by Goethe.
-There was already literature of subversion such as that from [[Voltaire]] and [[Sade]] and other [[libertine writer]]s.+There was already literature of subversion such as that from [[Voltaire]] and [[Sade]] and other [[libertine writer]]s. In the United Kingdom there was the renegade publisher [[Edmund Curll]] known for his [[radical]] [[pamphlet]]s and [[bawdy]] books.
 +A good introduction to this period, one which describes the [[popular literature]] of that era in France very well, is ''[[The Forbidden Best-Sellers of Pre-Revolutionary France]]''.
- 
-== Genres == 
-: [[amatory fiction]] - [[adventure novel]] - [[epistolary novel]] - [[gothic novel]] - "[[histories]]" - [[libertine novel]] - [[sentimental novel]] 
== Publishers == == Publishers ==
-[[Edmund Curll]]+In the United Kingdom there was the renegade publisher [[Edmund Curll]] known for his [[radical]] [[pamphlet]]s and [[bawdy]] books.
 +In the rest of Europe there was [[Pierre Marteau]], used as a collective pseudonym by publishers who wished to stay anonymous. See [[anonymity in publishing]].
-== Background ==+see [[publisher]]s
-: [[enlightenment]] - [[Neoclassicism]] - [[French Revolution]]+
- +
- +
-== Authors ==+
-: Abbé Prévost - William Blake - Restif de la Bretonne - Casanova - John Cleland - Claude Prosper Jolyot de Crébillon - Daniel Defoe - Marquis de Sade - Denis Diderot - David Hume - Immanuel Kant - Pierre Choderlos de Laclos - Delarivier Manley - André de Nerciat - Ann Radcliffe - Jean-Jacques Rousseau - Jonathan Swift - Giambattista Vico - Voltaire - Horace Walpole - Mary Wollstonecraft+
 +== Chronological list of authors ==
 +*[[Daniel Defoe]] (1659/1661 [?] – 1731)
 +*[[Delarivier Manley]] (1663 or c. 1670 - 1724)
 +*[[Jonathan Swift]] (1667 – 1745)
 +*[[Giambattista Vico]] (1668 – 1744)
 +*[[Voltaire]] (1694 – 1778)
 +*[[Abbé Prévost]] (1697 - 1763)
 +*[[Claude Prosper Jolyot de Crébillon]] (1707 - 1777)
 +*[[John Cleland]] (1709 – 1789)
 +*[[David Hume]] (1711 – 1776)
 +*[[Jean-Jacques Rousseau]] (1712 – 1778)
 +*[[Denis Diderot]] (1713 – 1784)
 +*[[Horace Walpole]] (1717 – 1797)
 +*[[Immanuel Kant]] (1724 – 1804)
 +*[[Casanova]] (1725 – 1798)
 +*[[Restif de la Bretonne]] (1734 – 1806)
 +*[[André de Nerciat]] (1739 - 1800)
 +*[[Marquis de Sade]] (1740 – 1814)
 +*[[Pierre Choderlos de Laclos]] (1741 - 1803)
 +*[[William Blake]] (1757 – 1827)
 +*[[Mary Wollstonecraft]] (1759 – 1797)
 +*[[Ann Radcliffe]] (1764 - 1823)
== Titles == == Titles ==
-: [[Robinson Crusoe]] (1719) - [[Pamela]] (1740) - [[Dom Bougre]] (1741) - [[Le Sopha, conte moral]] (1742) - [[Thérèse Philosophe]] (1748) - [[Bijoux Indiscrets]] (1748) - [[Fanny Hill]] (1750) - [[Tristram Shandy]] (1760-1770) - [[Castle of Otranto]] (1765) - [[Les Liaisons Dangereuses]] (1782) - [[The 120 Days of Sodom]] (1785) - [[Mysteries of Udolpho]] (1794) - [[La Religieuse]] (1796) - [[The Monk]] (1796) - [[L'Histoire de Juliette]] (1797) +*[[Robinson Crusoe]] (1719)
- +*[[Pamela]] (1740)
- +*[[Dom Bougre]] (1741)
-__TOC__+*[[Le Sopha, conte moral]] (1742)
- +*[[Thérèse Philosophe]] (1748)
-==European literature in the 18th century==+*[[Les Bijoux indiscrets]] (1748)
- +*[[Fanny Hill]] (1750)
-=== The Enlightenment === +*[[Tristram Shandy]] (1760-1770)
-The 18th century in Europe was [[Age of Enlightenment|The Age of Enlightenment]] and literature explored themes of social upheaval, reversals of personal status, political [[satire]], geographical [[exploration]] and the comparison between the supposed natural state of man and the supposed [[civilization|civilized]] state of man. [[Edmund Burke]], in his ''[[A Vindication of Natural Society: A View of the Miseries and Evils Arising to Mankind|A Vindication of Natural Society]]'' ([[1757]]), says: ''"The Fabrick of Superstition has in this our Age and Nation received much ruder Shocks than it had ever felt before; and through the Chinks and Breaches of our Prison, we see such Glimmerings of Light, and feel such refreshing Airs of Liberty, as daily raise our Ardor for more"''.+*[[The Castle of Otranto]] (1765)
- +*[[Les Liaisons dangereuses]] (1782)
-=== By year ===+*[[The 120 Days of Sodom]] (1785)
-In [[1700]] [[William Congreve (playwright)|William Congreve]]'s play ''[[The Way of the World]]'' premiered. [http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext98/wwrld10.txt] Although unsuccessful at the time ''The Way of the World'' is a good example of the sophistication of theatrical thinking during this period, with complex [[subplot]]s and characters intended as ironic parodies of common [[stereotype]]s. +*[[The Mysteries of Udolpho]] (1794)
- +*[[La Religieuse]] (1796)
-In [[1703]] [[Nicholas Rowe (dramatist)|Nicholas Rowe]]'s domestic drama ''The Fair Penitent'', an adaptation of [[Massinger]] and [[Nathan Field|Field]]'s ''Fatal Dowry'', was pronounced by [[Dr Johnson]] to be one of the most pleasing tragedies in the language. Also in [[1703]] [[Sir Richard Steele]]'s play ''The Tender Husband'' achieved some success.+*[[The Monk]] (1796)
- +*[[L'Histoire de Juliette]] (1797)
-In [[1704]] [[Jonathan Swift]] published ''[[A Tale of a Tub]]'' and ''[[The Battle of the Books]]'' [http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Texts/battle.html] and [[John Dennis]] published his ''Grounds of Criticism in Poetry''. ''The Battle of the Books'' begins with a reference to the use of a glass (which, in those days, would mean either a [[mirror]] or a [[magnifying glass]]) as a comparison to the use of satire. Swift is, in this, very much the child of his age, thinking in terms of [[science]] and [[satire]] at one and the same time. He was one of the first English novelists and also a political campaigner. His satirical writing springs from a body of liberal thought which produced not only books but also political pamphlets for public distribution. Swift's writing represents the new, the different and the modern attempting to change the world by parodying the ancient and incumbent. ''The Battle of the Books'' is a short writing which demonstrates his position very neatly.+
- +
-[[1707]] [[Henry Fielding]] was born ([[22 April]]) and his sister [[Sarah Fielding]] was born 3 years later on [[8 November]] [[1710]]. In [[1711]] [[Alexander Pope]] began a career in literature with the publishing of his ''[[An Essay on Criticism]]''. In [[1712]] [[French people|French]] [[philosophy|philosophical]] writer [[Jean Jacques Rousseau]] born [[28 June]] and his countryman [[Denis Diderot]] was born the following year [[1713]] on the [[5 October|5th of October]]. Also in [[1712]] Pope published ''The Rape of the Lock'' and in [[1713]] ''Windsor Forest''.+
- +
-[[Horace Walpole]] was born on [[24 September]] [[1717]]. +
- +
-[[Daniel Defoe]] was another political pamphleteer turned novelist like Jonathan Swift and was publishing in the early [[18th century]]. In [[1719]] he published ''[[Robinson Crusoe]]'', in [[1720]], ''Captain Singleton'' and, in [[1722]], ''[[Moll Flanders]]''. +
- +
-Other authors publishing in [[1722]] included [[Sir Richard Steele]], [[Penelope Aubin]] and [[Eliza Haywood]]. +
- +
-From [[1726]] to [[1729]] [[Voltaire]] lived in exile mainly in [[England]].+
- +
-In [[1728]] [[John Gay]] wrote ''[[The Beggar's Opera]]'' which has increased in fame ever since. ''The Beggar's Opera'' began a new style in Opera, the "ballad opera" which brings the operatic form down to a more popular level and precedes the genre of comic [[operetta]]s. Also in 1728 came the publication of ''[[Cyclopaedia]], or, A Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences'' (folio, 2 vols.), an encyclopedia by [[Ephraim Chambers]]. The Cyclopaedia was one of the first general encyclopedias to be produced in English and was the main model for [[Diderot]]'s ''[[Encyclopédie]]'' (published in France between [[1751]] and [[1766]]).+
- +
-In [[1729]] Jonathan Swift published ''[[A Modest Proposal]]'', a satirical suggestion that [[Irish people|Irish]] families should sell their children as food. Swift was, at this time, fully involved in political campaigning for the Irish. +
- +
-In [[1731]] [[George Lillo]]'s play ''The London Merchant'' was a success at the Theatre-Royal in [[Drury Lane]]. It was a new kind of play, a domestic tragedy, which approximates to what later came to be called a [[melodrama]]. +
- +
-[[1749]] [[Henry Fielding]] published ''[[The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling]]''. +
- +
-[[1751]] [[Thomas Gray]] wrote ''Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard''. Denis Diderot began the ''Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers''. Over the next three decades ''Encyclopédie'' attracted, alongside of those from Diderot, notable contributions from other great intellectuals of the 18th Century including [[Voltaire]], [[Rousseau]] and [[Louis de Jaucourt]]+
- +
-[[1752]] a satirical short story by [[Voltaire]], ''[[Micromégas]]'' featured space travellers visiting earth. It was one of the first stories leaning toward what later became [[Science fiction]]. Its publication at this time is indicative of the trend toward scientific thinking prevalent in the age of enlightenment.+
- +
-[[1754]] [[Henry Fielding]] died [[8 October]]. +
- +
-[[1759]] [[Voltaire]] published ''[[Candide]]''. [[Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller]] was born [[10 November]]. +
- +
-[[1760]] - [[1767]] [[Laurence Sterne]] wrote ''[[The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman|Tristram Shandy]]''.+
- +
-[[1761 in literature|1761]] [[Jean Jacques Rousseau|Rousseau]] published [[Julie, ou la nouvelle Héloïse]]. +
- +
-[[1762]] [[Jean Jacques Rousseau|Rousseau]] published [[Émile]]. +
- +
-[[1764]] [[Horace Walpole]] published ''[[The Castle of Otranto]]'' (initially under a pseudonym and claiming it to be a translation of an Italian work from [[1529]].) The first [[gothic novel]]. +
- +
-[[1766]] [[Oliver Goldsmith]] published ''[[The Vicar of Wakefield]]''.+
- +
-[[1767]] [[August Wilhelm von Schlegel]] was born [[8 September]].+
- +
-[[1768]] [[Sarah Fielding]] died. +
- +
-[[1770]] [[April 7]] birth of [[William Wordsworth]].+
- +
-[[1772]] [[Karl Wilhelm Friedrich von Schlegel]] was born [[10 March]]. +
- +
-[[1773]] [[Oliver Goldsmith]]'s play ''[[She Stoops to Conquer]]'', a [[farce]], was performed in [[London]]. +
- +
-[[1774]] [[Goethe]] wrote ''[[The Sorrows of Young Werther]]'', a novel which approximately marks the beginning of the [[Romanticism]] movement in the [[arts]] and [[philosophy]]. A transition thus began, from the critical, science inspired, enlightenment writing to the romantic yearning for forces beyond the mundane and for foreign times and places to inspire the [[soul]] with passion and mystery. +
- +
-[[1777]] the comedy play ''[[The School for Scandal]]'', a [[comedy of manners]], was written by [[Richard Brinsley Sheridan]]. +
- +
-[[1778]] Death of [[Voltaire]]. Death of [[Jean Jacques Rousseau]] [[2 July]]. Two major contributors to Diderot's ''Encyclopédie'' dead in the same year.+
- +
-[[1783]] [[Washington Irving]] was born.+
- +
-[[1784]] [[Denis Diderot]] died [[31 July]]. Voltaire, Rousseau and Diderot have all died within a period of a few short years and French [[philosophy]] had thus lost three of its greatest enlightened free thinkers. Rousseau's thinking on the nobility of life in the wilds, facing nature as a naked savage still had great force to influence the next generation as the romantic movement gained momentum. [[Beaumarchais]] wrote ''[[The Marriage of Figaro]]''. [[Maria Falconar|Maria]] and [[Harriet Falconar]] publish ''[[Poems on Slavery]]''. The anti-slavery movement was growing in power and many poems and pamphlets were published on the subject. +
- +
-[[1786]] [[Robert Burns]] published ''[[Poems Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect]]''. The mood of literature was swinging toward more interest in diverse ethnicity. [[Beaumarchais]]' ''The Marriage of Figaro'' (''Le Nozze di Figaro'') was adapted into a comic opera composed by [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart]], with [[libretto]] by [[Lorenzo da Ponte]].+
- +
-[[1789]] [[James Fenimore Cooper]] was born [[15 September]] in [[United States|America]]. +
- +
-[[1792]] [[Percy Bysshe Shelley]] was born ([[August 4]]).+
- +
-[[1793]] ''[[Salisbury Plain]]'' by [[William Wordsworth]].+
- +
-[[1794]] [[Robert Goldsmith]] was born. +
- +
-In [[1795]] [[Samuel Taylor Coleridge]] met [[William Wordsworth]] and his sister Dorothy. The two men published a joint volume of poetry, ''[[Lyrical Ballads]]'' ([[1798]]), which became a central text of Romantic poetry. +
- +
-[[1796]] [[Thomas Chandler Haliburton]] was born. [[Denis Diderot]]'s ''[[Jacques le Fataliste]]'' was published posthumously.+
- +
-[[1796]] [[Charlotte Smith]] published her novel ''[[Marchmont]]''.+
-See main article: [[European Enlightenment Literature]]+=== The Enlightenment ===
 +The 18th century in Europe was The Age of Enlightenment and literature explored themes of social upheaval, reversals of personal status, political satire, geographical exploration and the comparison between the supposed natural state of man and the supposed civilized state of man. [[Edmund Burke]], in his [[A Vindication of Natural Society]] (1757), says: ''"The Fabrick of Superstition has in this our Age and Nation received much ruder Shocks than it had ever felt before; and through the Chinks and Breaches of our Prison, we see such Glimmerings of Light, and feel such refreshing Airs of Liberty, as daily raise our Ardor for more"''
-See also: [[List of years in literature]]: +==See also==
 +*[[18th century philosophy]]
 +*[[18th century literature by year]]
 +*[[French literature of the 18th century]]
 +*[[Novel#Sentimentalism.2C Psychology.2C and a New Individual.2C 1750-1850|The novel and new psychology in the 18th century]]
 +*[[List of years in literature#1800s|List of years in literature: the 1800s]]
 +* [[Neoclassical literature|Literary neoclassicism]]
 +*[[English literature]]: [[Augustan literature]], [[Amatory fiction|British amatory fiction]]
 +*[[German literature]]: [[German Romanticism]], [[Sturm und Drang]]
 +*[[Enlightenment literature]]
 +*[[Neoclassical literature]]
 +*[[Causes of the French Revolution]]
{{GFDL}} {{GFDL}}

Revision as of 11:12, 28 January 2014

Thérèse Philosophe (1748) was the bestseller of the French Enlightenment
Enlarge
Thérèse Philosophe (1748) was the bestseller of the French Enlightenment
Traité des trois imposteurs by anonymous (date unknown, edition shown 1777)
Enlarge
Traité des trois imposteurs by anonymous (date unknown, edition shown 1777)

Related e

Wikipedia
Wiktionary
Shop

Featured:

All in all, literature was not so widespread as in the following century, since paper was still quite expensive, see cheap paper.

Literature of the 18th century refers to world literature produced during the 18th century. The 18th century saw the development of the modern novel as literary genre, in fact many candidates for the first novel in English date from this period. Subgenres of the novel during the 18th century were the epistolary novel, the sentimental novel, "histories", the gothic novel and the libertine novel. 18th Century Europe started in the Age of Enlightenment and gradually moved towards Romanticism. In the visual arts, it was the period of Neoclassicism.

Although the modern novel as literary genre solidified, literacy rates were still very low as there was no primary education for the common man. As Resa L. Dudovitz notes in The Myth of Superwoman, "a novel which sold well in the eighteenth century - and even the most successful book rarely sold more than a few thousand copies - did so within a fairly closed circle of readers, many of whom as writers also participated in deciding the prevailing criteria of literary excellence, [...], by the mid-nineteenth century cheaper editions and improved access to reading material through subscriptions and in France, through reading rooms, pushed sales of a popular novel as high as 10,000 copies. Although critics continued to function as the arbiters of taste, the critical elite could no longer claim literature to be their exclusive property."

The English novel became a popular form in the 18th century, with Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe (1719) and Samuel Richardson's Pamela (1740). Another very popular form was the Gothic novel (The Castle of Otranto, 1764) and its European equivalents the roman noir in France and the Schauerroman in Germany.

Early European bestsellers were Julie, or the New Heloise by Rousseau and The Sorrows of Young Werther by Goethe.

There was already literature of subversion such as that from Voltaire and Sade and other libertine writers. In the United Kingdom there was the renegade publisher Edmund Curll known for his radical pamphlets and bawdy books.

A good introduction to this period, one which describes the popular literature of that era in France very well, is The Forbidden Best-Sellers of Pre-Revolutionary France.

Contents

Publishers

In the United Kingdom there was the renegade publisher Edmund Curll known for his radical pamphlets and bawdy books.

In the rest of Europe there was Pierre Marteau, used as a collective pseudonym by publishers who wished to stay anonymous. See anonymity in publishing.

see publishers

Chronological list of authors

Titles

The Enlightenment

The 18th century in Europe was The Age of Enlightenment and literature explored themes of social upheaval, reversals of personal status, political satire, geographical exploration and the comparison between the supposed natural state of man and the supposed civilized state of man. Edmund Burke, in his A Vindication of Natural Society (1757), says: "The Fabrick of Superstition has in this our Age and Nation received much ruder Shocks than it had ever felt before; and through the Chinks and Breaches of our Prison, we see such Glimmerings of Light, and feel such refreshing Airs of Liberty, as daily raise our Ardor for more"

See also


Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "18th century in literature" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

Retrieved from "http://artandpopularculture.com/18th_century_in_literature"
Personal tools
Metas