The Neoclassical Age and the Rise of the Novel (1660-1789) by Anna Lazzari

Restoration Period + Augustan Period = the Age of Reason Outline 1660-1700: the Restoration Period (the Age of Dryden) 1700-1745: the Augustan Period (the Age of Pope and Swift) 1745-1789: the Age of Sensibility (the Age of Dr Johnson) Restoration Period + Augustan Period = the Age of Reason

Restauration Accession to the throne of Charles II (1660) All principles of Puritanism were rejected Theatres were reopened (1660) Women were allowed to be actresses Trade continued to grow (importance of ships) The plague (1665) and the fire of London (1666)

Restauration Death of Charles II (1688) His brother James II (Catholic) on the throne James II’s Protestant daughter, Mary and her husband William invited to rule England, but they must obey parliament’s wishes James II flees and the divine right to rule is over. William and Mary sign the Bill of Rights Detail of William and Mary as portrayed on the ceiling of the Painted Hall of the Greenwich Hospital

Restauration – Bill of Right (1689) Ratified the “Glorious Revolution” of 1688 Ensured that Parliament would now and forever be superior to the monarchy (constitutional monarchy) King had to call parliament regularly and Parliament controlled spending No Catholic could sit on the throne King couldn’t interfere with Parliament or dissolve it Habeas corpus – nobody could be thrown in jail without being charged with a specific crime (trial by jury and no excessive fines or cruel and unusual punishment)

Restauration – New Literary Genres Drama Heroic plays (Dryden, All for Love, 1677) Comedies of manners (Congreve, The Way of the World, 1700) New indoor theatres designed by Sir Christopher Wren Poetry Heroic couplet (Dryden, Absalom and Achitophel, 1681)

Portrait by Michael Dahl, 1705 The Augustan Period Mary died in 1694 William ruled alone until his death in 1702. Mary’s younger sister, Anne, became Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland (8th March 1702) 1st May 1707, Acts of Union (the kingdoms of England and Scotland united as a single sovereign state known as Great Britain). Anne continued to reign as Queen of Great Britain and Ireland until her death (1714). Portrait by Michael Dahl, 1705

The Augustan Period From Augustus, Roman Emperor Strong interest in tradition (thus the “neo”), distrust of radical innovation Great respect for classical writers (those of Ancient Greece and Rome) Literature was one of the arts – as an “art” it required the practice and study of a set of skills and the involvement of the artist in the forms and styles of the “classical” era, the original Augustan Age

The Augustan Period Emergency of the Empire First prime ministers (Walpole and Pitt) expanded British power and commerce overseas Britain became colonial power, ruling Canada and India, though in 1776 they lost American colonies. Slave trade enriched nation; opposition to slavery widespread by both Anglicans and Methodists

The Augustan Period Poetics Imitation of Classical literature: Perfect imitations of nature Craftmanship Codification of rules in literature Imitation of nature: ‘Human nature’ (Pope) Stressed balance, logic, sophisticated wit, and emotional restraint

The Augustan Period Poetry Had to express universal truths and not personal emotions Formal perfection (classical inspiration) Triumph of the «poetic diction» Use of elevated and poetical words Use of Latinate words Use of the heroic couplet (rhymed iambic pentameters)

The Augustan Period Literature The Age of Swift, Pope, Addison, Walpole Expansion of reading public New journalism Professional writers and booksellers Writers, artists, politicians, etc., gathered in coffeehouses to exchange ideas, conduct business, and gossip

The Augustan Period – New Literary Genres Sentimental comedy: Gay, The Beggar’s Opera (1728) Mock heroic: Swift, Battle of the Books (1704); Pope, The Rape of the Lock (1712, 1714) Landscape poems: Thomson, Winter (1726) Satires: Swift, A Modest Proposal (1729) Novel: Defoe, Robinson Crusoe (1719)

The Augustan Period Antecedents of the Novel Newspapers: news, gossips, reports Journals: best writers, didacticism, model for taste, education of middle classes; Steele and Addison, Tatler and Spectator (1709-11, 1711-12) Pamphlets and satires: political, occasional, ridicule Other: essays, travelogues, biographies, letters

The Augustan Period Characteristics of the Novel From Italian «novella» (idea of novelty, telling something new) Aimed at middle class readers (a lot of women too) Easy to read Set in a world easily recognizable by middle classes Interaction between individuals and society Novelists mainly wanted to reveal, educate and stimulate moral reflection Novel often published in installments

The Augustan Period Defoe, Robinson Crusoe, 1719 Defoe, «father» of the English novel First full-length prose fiction and first English popular novel Application of journalism (Defoe was also a journalist) World view of middle classes

The Augustan Period Defoe’s innovations: Narrative realism (loosely based on Alexander Silkirk’s real story) Fictitious events against a realistic background Reportage: keen eye for the detail (descriptions)

Main novelists Jonathan Swift, Gulliver’s Travels (1726) Samuel Richardson, Pamela (1740, epistolary form) Henry Fielding, Tom Jones (1749) Lawrence Sterne, Tristram Shandy (1757-59) Horace Walpole, The Castle of Otranto (1764)

The Age of Sensibility - Towards Romanticism… Prose (fiction) Novels more popular than poems for the first time Epistolary novels and satires Gothic novels Experimental fiction influenced by Cervantes in Spain Laurence Sterne’s Tristram Shandy (first metanovel and antinovel)

The Age of Sensibility - Towards Romanticism… Prose (non fiction) Essays - literary criticism, biography, philosophy, politics, history, aesthetics, economics (Adam Smith) E. Burke, A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful, 1757 Concept of Sublime: natural beauty that was not neat and well- ordered like a garden but complex, uncontrollable and impressive, leading to feelings of awe. Memoirs of women created celebrities who let readers into private lives First dictionaries

The Age of Sensibility - Towards Romanticism… Poetry Poems were melancholy and lamented loss of poetic age “Primitives” like Ossian were popular By, the Scottish poet James Macpherson (from 1760: Fragments of ancient poetry, collected in the Highlands of Scotland, and translated from the Gaelic or Erse language)  Cycle of epic poems translated into poetic prose, with short and simple sentences Ossian Receiving the Ghosts of Fallen French Heroes, Anne-Louis Girodet, 1805