The Cambridge Companion to English Literature, 1650–1740

Newly commissioned essays make use of current critical perspectives in order to offer new insight into the literature of Restoration and early 18th-century England in all its variety, from vitriolic satire to heroic verse. The volume's chronologies and select bibliographies will guide the reader through texts and events, comprehending the period with a fresh perspective. 5 photos.

This volume offers an account of English literary culture in one of its most volatile and politically engaged moments. From the work of Milton and Marvell in the 1650s and 1660s through the brilliant careers of Dryden, Rochester, and Behn, Locke and Astell, Swift and Defoe, Pope and Montagu, the pressures and extremes of social, political, and sexual experience are everywhere reflected in literary texts: in the daring lyrics and intricate political allegories of this age, in the vitriol and bristling topicality of its satires as well as in the imaginative flight of its mock epics, fictions, and heroic verse. The volume's chronologies and select bibliographies will guide the reader through texts and events, while the fourteen essays commissioned for this Companion will allow us to read the period anew.

List of illustrations; List of contributors; Preface; Chronologies; Part I. Contexts and Modes: 1. England 1649–1750: differences contained? John Spurr; 2. Satire, lampoon, libel, slander Michael Seidel; 3. Gender, literature, and gendering literature in the Restoration Margaret A. Doody; 4. Theatrical culture I: politics and theatre Jessica Munns; 5. Theatrical culture II: theatre and music James A. Winn; 6. Lyric forms Joshua Scodel; 7. Classical texts: translations and transformations Paul Hammond; Part II. Writers: 8. 'This Islands watchful Centinel': anti-Catholicism and proto-Whiggery in Milton and Marvell Cedric C. Brown; 9. John Dryden Steven N. Zwicker; 10. John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester Ros Ballaster; 11. The authorial ciphers of Aphra Behn Margaret Ferguson; 12. Swift, Defoe, and narrative forms John Mullan; 13. Mary Astell and John Locke Patricia Springborg; 14. Alexander Pope, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, and the literature of social comment Donna Landry; Index.

This volume explores literary culture in one of its most volatile periods when literature was interlinked with the social, political, and sexual scenes of the day. Covering the Restoration and early eighteenth century, writers examined include Milton, Marvell, Dryden, Rochester, Behn, Locke, Astell, Swift, Defoe, Pope, and Montagu. A wide range of genres from lyric and satire, and epic and heroic prose to music, theatre, and philosophy are all explored.