Background Notes – The Restoration and 18th Century (‘Age of Enlightenment’) – 1660 to 1798
Background -The Restoration
New literary period begins (1660)
Political leaders sought to establish society on a firm basis and dislike of change
became almost a guiding principle
Conservatism was reflected in literature and other arts
2 major disasters – the Plague of 1665 and the Great Fire of 1666 – know about life
inLondon during these times through the work of Samuel Pepys (peeps) 1633-1703 from his diary
England – start of the 18th century – small, very traditional country
London dominates the literature of this period – nearly every famous writer went to
London to make his name
Social order based on class system (7 groups) – The Great (live profusely); The
Rich (live plentifully); The Middle Sort (live well); Working Trades (labor hard but feel no want); Country People (live indifferently); Poor (live hard); Miserable (suffer want)
The Arts
During this period, most striking characteristic was practical quality
Not a great age of painting or sculpture
Portraits of regular, real people, familiar landscapes, cartoons/caricatures, music
was cultivated for competence rather than genius, drama was active (more good actors than playwrites)
English arts excelled in everyday life – bldg. and improving towns and estates
(gardening and landscape design elevated to an art form)
The Ideal – to make use of art in every aspect of life but to do it in a way that it
becomes natural
Background – The Age of Enlightenment (Age of Reason)
No consensus as to when the period began – many scholars simply use the
beginning of the 18th century (1700s)
Period ended – beginning of the Napoleanic Wars (1804-1815)
Most people were strongly patriotic; welcomed signs of country’s greatness
The age idolized Sir Isaac Newton – provided framework for a system that seemed
capable of explaining everything in the universe
Philosophy of a universe as a smoothly running machine first set in motion by a
benevolent deity = DEISM
Human reason and “common sense” played a large and significant role in this
period
Basis of the Movement
Was an 18th-century movement in Western philosophy
Was an age of optimism, tempered by the realistic recognition of the sad state of
the human condition and the need for major reforms
Was more a set of attitudes than a set of ideas
Its core was a critical questioning of traditional institutions, customs, and morals
Often encompassed the 17th-century philosophy known as the Age of Reason
Literary Benchmarks
Theater reopened but was for the court, nobility, men and women of fashion only
Women’s roles were now played by women actresses
Dramas were comedies of manners
Preference for public and general themes rather than private and individual ones
Writers addressed themselves to problems of society and to recurring, universal
constants in human experience
Writers were largely dependent on patrons
The novel had won popularity by the 1770s
Saw the development of the modern novel as a literary genre
Subgenres included the epistolary novel, the sentimental novel, histories, the gothic
novel and the libertine novel
3 Stages of Development (sort of):
Restoration: characterized by small, privileged elite centered on the court
and deeply influenced by French classical taste; it sustains traditional values and admires ‘wit’ - a brilliance and quickness of perception combined with a cleverness of expression.
Age of Pope: satire becomes dominant form of literature; there is a great
concern for moral analysis.
Age of Johnson: time of the rise of the novel and of increasing demand for
descriptions of actual life rather than of imaginary worlds.
Romanticism: began about the mid-18th century; new mood in literature
where inner world of wonder and feeling was given expression.
Key literature included Alexander Pope’s “The Rape of the Lock” (1712), Swift’s
“A Modest Proposal” (1729), and Voltaire’s Candide (1759).