A Survey of the Background and Development of English Literature from the Earliest Time to Eighteen Century

A Survey of the Background and Development of incline belles-lettres from the Earliest Time to Eighteen light speed Contents 1. What is Literature? 2. Why the Knowledge of face Literatures history is principal(prenominal) 3. Distinct phases from Earliest to Modern advance 4. Brief appraise of get on withs onwards Eighteen Century Anglo-Saxon period The Medieval period The conversion period The Puritan period The regaining period 5. A fit of Eighteen snow General view of eighteen degree centigrade affable aspects Religious aspects Characteristics of eighteen century Literary Critics of the duration Chronology of the writers of the be onWhat is Literature? The business of scripted whole caboodle, having excellence of stratum or expression and dealing with radicals of abiding interest is c whollyed belles-lettres. Literature is one of the Fine Arts analogous, Music terpsichore Painting Sculpture. As it is meant to dampen aesthetic pleasure rath er than voice any utilitarian purpose. It consists of majuscule writings which, what ever their suits argon , remarkable for literary form or expression. Life, Society and Nature atomic subdue 18 the subject matters of numbers. There is an intimate connection amongst literary productions and life, which provides the raw literal on which literature imposes an artistic form.Why the Knowledge of position Literatures history is important? side literature is one of the richest literatures of the world, the literature of a great nation which has vitality, rich verity and continuity. As literature is the face of society, the various changes which stick come close in English society, from the soonest to the modern times, sire left their stamp on English literature thus in order to appreciate the true scent out and judgement of literature the knowledge of various phases of English literature, English society and g eitherwherenmental history of the land is essential.Whe n we study the history of English literature from the earliest to modern times, we occur that it has passed through trusted definite phases, each having tag peculiar(prenominal)s. These phases may be termed as yearss or Periods and divided into contrary persona tally to their characteristics. There are five counsellings to identify the different eras of English Literature. Distinct phases from Earliest to Modern season 1. Phases which are named aft(prenominal) the Central Literary figures. Chaucer Shakespeare Milton Dryden pope fast oneson Wordsworth Tennyson Hardy Periods named after the Rulers of the time. Elizabethan era The Jacobean period The Age of Queen Anne The Victorian Age The Georgian Period 3 simple partitions named after literary movements clear Age Romantic Age 4 While other after certain(p) important historical eras as, Anglo-Saxon period The Medieval period The metempsychosis period The Puritan period The Restoration period 5 Na med by the span of Time The S veritable(a)teen Century Literature Eighteen Century Literature Nineteenth Century Literature Twentieth Century LiteratureBrief survey of hop ons before Eighteen Century The Old English Period or the Anglo-Saxon Period refers to the literature produced from the invasion of Celtic England by Germanic tribes in the first half of the fifth century to the conquest of England in 1066 by William the Conqueror. During the Old English Period, written literature began to develop from spontaneous tradition, and in the eighth century numbers written in the unc revealh Anglo-Saxon ( in like manner cognise as Old English) appeared. One of the intimately long-familiar eighth century Old English fractions of literature is Beowulf, a great Germanic epic poem.Two poets of the Old English Period who wrote on scriptural and sense of smellual themes was Caedmon and Cy impudentulf. The Middle English Period consists of the literature produced in the iv and a h alf centuries between the Norman Conquest of 1066 and about 1500, when the prototype literary langu bestride, derived from the dialect of the capital of the United Kingdom area, became recognizable as modern English. introductory to the second half of the fourteenth century, vernacular literature consisted primarily of ghostly writings. The second half of the fourteenth century produced the first great age of secular literature.The most widely kn protest of these writings are Geoffrey Chaucers The Canterbury Tales, the unnamed Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and Thomas Malorys Morte dArthur. While the English spiritual rebirth began with the ascent of the household of Tudor to the English throne in 1485, the English Literary Renaissance began with English humanists much(prenominal) as Sir Thomas More and Sir Thomas Wyatt. In addition, the English Literary Renaissance consists of four subsets The Elizabethan Age, the Jacobean Age, the Caroline Age, and the Commonwealth Perio d (which is overly known as the Puritan Interregnum).The Elizabethan Age of English Literature coincides with the reign of Elizabeth I, 1558 1603. During this time, medieval tradition was blend with Renaissance optimism. Lyric poetry, prose, and dramatic play were the major ports of literature that flowered during the Elizabethan Age. Some important writers of the Elizabethan Age intromit William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, Edmund Spenser, Sir Walter Raleigh, and Ben Jonson. The Jacobean Age of English Literature coincides with the reign of James I, 1603 1625.During this time the literature became advance(a), somber, and witting of kind abuse and rivalry. The Jacobean Age produced rich prose and drama as sanitary as the King James translation of the Bible. Shakespeare and Jonson wrote during the Jacobean Age, as salutary as John Donne, Francis Bacon, and Thomas Middleton. The Caroline Age of English Literature coincides with the reign of Charles I, 1625 1649. The w riters of this age wrote with refinement and elegance. This era produced a hardening of poets known as the Cavalier Poets and the dramatists of this age were the finale to write in the Elizabethan tradition.The Commonwealth Period, overly known as the Puritan Interregnum, of English Literature includes the literature produced during the time of Puritan leader Oliver Cromwell. This period produced the policy-making writings of John Milton, Thomas Hobbes political treatise Leviathan, and the prose of Andrew Marvell. In September of 1642, the Puritans un appealing theatres on moral and religious grounds. For the next eighteen years the theatres remained closed, accounting for the lack of drama produced during this time period.The Neo setical Period of English literature (1660 1785) was much influenced by contemporary French literature, which was in the midst of its great age. The literature of this time is known for its use of philosophy, reason, skepticism, wit, and refinement . The Neoclassical Period also marks the first great age of English literary comment. a great deal like the English Literary Renaissance, the Neoclassical Period can be divided into three subsets the Restoration, the Augustan Age, and the Age of Sensibility.The Restoration, 1660 1700, is marked by the take of the monarchy and the triumph of reason and tolerance over religious and political passion. The Restoration produced an abundance of prose and poetry and the distinctive comedy of manners known as Restoration comedy. It was during the Restoration that John Milton published heaven Lost and Paradise Regained. Other major writers of the era include John Dryden, John Wilmot second Earl of Rochester, and John Locke. The English Augustan Age derives its name from the brilliant literary period of Virgil and Ovid under the Roman emperor Augustus (27 B. C. A.D. 14). In English literature, the Augustan Age, 1700 1745, refers to literature with the pre rife characteristics of refine ment, clarity, elegance, and balance of perceptiveness. Well-known writers of the Augustan Age include Jonathan Swift, horse parsley Pope, and Daniel Defoe. A significant contri justion of this time period include the release of the first English re dulcetfuls by Defoe, and the novel of character, Pamela, by Samuel Richardson in 1740. During the Age of Sensibility, literature reflected the worldview of Enlightenment and began to emphasize instinct and sapidity, rather than judgment and restraint.A growing fellow feeling for the Middle Ages during the Age of Sensibility sparked an interest in medieval ballads and folk literature. Another name for this period is the Age of Johnson because the dominant authors of this period were Samuel Johnson and his literary and intellectual circle. This period also produced round of the sterling(prenominal) early novels of the English language, including Richardsons Clarissa (1748) and Henry Fieldings Tom Jones (1749). General view of eightee n centuryIn history English literature the period of over one hundred years from (1660-1789) is variously termed as Augustan Age, Pseudo-classical age or Neo-Classical Age, and age of Queen Anne. Matthew Arnold as Age of Prose and discernment it is also knows as age of Good Sense, age of Good Taste and age of Right primer coat. The term Augustan was chosen by the writers of eighteenth century themselves, who saw in Pope, Addison, Swift, Johnson, Burke, the modern parallels to Horace, Virgil, Cicero and other brilliant writers who made roman print literature famous during the reign of Emperor Augustus.Eighteen century is called vernal Classical age on the account of three reasons a) The writers of eighteen century tested to follow the noble and simple methods of great ancients like Homer and Virgil thats why they were called Neoclassicist. b) During eighteen century thither was an abundance of literary productions there for tyros termed as classic age. c) During this period E nglish rebelled against the exaggerated and fantastic style of writing prevalent during the Elizabethan and Puritan ages and they demanded that Poetry, Drama and Prose should follow get hold of rules. n this they were influenced by French writers specially Boileau and Rapin. Therefore this period is known as neoclassical age. In eighteen century there was a completion of the reception against Elizabethan romanticism. This reaction had started in seventeen century with Denham, Waller and Drden. Eighteen Century is the age of social, political, religious and literary controversies. Critical spirit was aboard and men stop taking things for granted. Great stress was on reason and intellect sin. Notice the difference in age between Franklin and Edwards. 706 for Franklin and 1703 for Edwards. They are only three years apart, but they live in different eras. It was a choice that they made. You can be like Jonathan Edwards even now, and nearly people are. Ben Franklin is part of new move ment, one that a pilfers in europium wherefore moves out from there. This is called the Enlightenment, also known as the Age of Reason or the Neo-Classical Era. This period goes by the names the Enlightenment, the Age of Reason, and the Neo-Classical Age. There was a great deforming a bureau from faith as primary focussing of life. People had been caught up in religious schism and sometimes like a shot warfare from 1534, the year Henry VIII split international from the Catholic church, until the Glorious Revolution of 1589. England now turned its attention to politics and scientific/logical analysis & reason. Belief had been based on authority renovation brought the scientific method. Scientific method beliefs should be proven through repeated investigates. Until now, one was to trust the pronouncements of some authority. In religion, you accepted the dictates of the church in science, you would turn to a recognized authority like Aristotle, Ptolemy, etc.Your own bl ueprint could mislead you. Chaucers Wife of Bath trusted experience over authority, but she was wrong to do so. In this era, she would be right. Copernicus & Galileo trusted their own experience, their observations of the stars, over the authority of Ptolemy. They concluded that the world circled the sunbathe rather than the other way around. Newton observe the laws of temperance, motion, & created a new sort out of mathematics calculus. A valid experiment would be repeatable. Thus others who turned telescopes toward the skies should observe the analogous things Copernicus & Galileo did. people wanted proof did not want to accept an idea as true just because some person of authority say. The super name for the Enlightenment is Sir Isaac Newton. He larned gravity this is the calculus branch of mathematics. Newton was a great thinker. He discovered the idea of gravity that bodies attract to one another based on their mass. He discovered a principle, why things fall to the e arth. For Edwards, you fell to the earth because of divinity. Now we realise another explanation, a rude(a) explanation, it is the pull of gravity.In the religion of these people, once you discover the way that the planets move around the sun and the reason of this is gravity, then you slip by the get for supernatural intervention. In the Ptolemaic system understood by the medieval Christian, angels were responsible for that making the sun, the moon, and the stars go around. Could an angel be up on the moon pushing it? Is there any way to negate it? It could be possible, we cannot disprove it. Do we really think there are angels? No, because gravity was a sufficient explanation. We do not need the angels any more(prenominal) we have gravity now.They could be there but they arent necessary. In the idea of cutting away that which is unnecessary, moving from that which is complex to that which is simple in science is not as Occams razor. Occam was an English priest and a scient ist. Occams razor is the idea that you cut away any unneeded part of your hypothesis. The thrust of Enlightenment was to inquisition for natural explanations for things in the scientific method. The idea of supernatural becomes something of a scandal, something of a great difficulty why would God need to intervene?If Mars was doing loops out there, then God would need to do so, but He made a more simple and elegant system which operates on its own. The universe is like a giant quantify and God is the master clock maker. In this period, they love to make clocks. Clocks were emblematic of the universe. You could tell time by the way the planets move around the sun. Theyre only in this position ein truth so many years. Based on that, if youve been out time change of location and you come flying into the Solar System, you can take a snatch of where the planets are and figure out when it is.It moves like a giant clock and they were discovering this. These arent random or odd motions up in the sky, they are very regular. So God created a world that operates according to laws, natural law. This means that He does not need to intervene. They had their own sort of religious expression. They were called the Deists. Deism is sort of a natural religion. That is its based on observation of what we can see. Another element of this Enlightenment is the idea that we should be able to see the evidence for ourselves and judge it for ourselves. A movement away from authority.Before, if you wanted to prove a scientific theory, you would consult Hypocrites and Aristotle. You would put unitedly your quotations, and its proven because you quoted the neat authorities. In religious matters, you quote the Bible, and the Bishops, and the theologians, the proper authorities. Now they say move toward your own individual ability. We see that roughly also in the early stages of the Puritan movement, but this is expressed very differently. If I turn start a light switch, it will turn the light off. If you turn the switch, will it do the same thing?If it is scientifically valid, it is universal anybody can turn the light off. The one thing an experiment has to be is repeatable. The idea of special revelation goes away. We now have the appeal to common revelation. The goal is to have a religion based on stuff that is accessible to all of us. You dont have to be in a certain post at a certain time anybody anywhere can repeat this experiment. Social aspects There was a rise of a trading community in the early eighteen century England. Most of the traders were Whigs and most of the landed gentry and nobility were Tories.The clangor between these cardinal parties was not only political but social two. Eighteen century is known in the social history of England for the rise of the middle classes with the unprecedented rise in trade and comers the English were decent increasingly wealthy and many hither to poor people were determination theme selves in the rank of watch overable burgesses. These nouveaux riches were desirous of better-looking themselves and aristocratic touch by appearing to be learned and sophisticated like there traditional social superiors- the landed gentry and nobility.This class of endorsers had hitherto been neglected by high brow writers. the literary works previous to the eighteen century were almost in variably meant to be the reading of the higher strata of society. Only popular literature such as Ballad, catered for the lower rungs. The up and coming middle classes of the eighteen century demanded some new kind of literature which should be in conformity with there temper and be designed as well to voice there aspirations as to cater for there taste. England was than becoming a country of low-toned and big traders and shop keepers.Some new type of literature of literature was demanded and this new type must expressed the new idle of the eighteen century, the place and the importance of the individuals life t o tell men, not about knights to kings but about themselves, about their own thoughts and motives and struggles and the results of action upon their own characters. Religious aspects The fact that religion is not only concerned with spirituality and morality but also with physical and mental health is reflected in the teaching of most religious traditions in the world.Eighteen century was the age of the speared of natural religion or Deism. Deists believed in the existence of God but disbelieved in any revealed religion, not excepting Christianity. evening in religion, reason and nature ruled the roost. People were also talking about natural morality the doctrine of the reason loving deists were repudiated by arthropods ethnologists. Characteristics of eighteen century 1. Reason and rationality 2. Realism and precision 3. splay of periodical press 4. Rapid reading of prose 5. Prosaic poetry 6. Augustan themes 7. Development of satire 8.Evolution of novel 9. substandard in dram a Reason and rationality Pope and his followers gave much importance to reason in their modes of thinking and expressing. In the eighteen century reason was exalted. The main characteristic of neoclassical age is a general searching after rationality. This search which started in the age of Dryden culminated in the age of Pope. This reign of reason and gross sense continued in to the middle of the century when the new ides and voices appeared and the precursors of the English romantics of the nineteenth century appeared on the scene.Al the important writers of the neoclassical age Swift, Pope and Dr. Johnson glorified reason. Realism and precision The two main characteristics of the restoration period-Realism and precision were carried to come along perfection during eighteen century. They are open in their comminuted form in the poetry of Pope who perfected the heroic orthodontic braces and in the prose of Addison who developed it into a clear, precise and elegant form of expr ession. machinate of Periodical press With the rise of the periodical press in the beg of the eighteen century, the essay took a long stride forward.Addison and Steele wrote social essays, their aim was social reform and to censor the manners and morals of the age, more specially the frivolities of the female sex. Rapid victimisation of prose As eighteen century was the age of social, political and literary controversies in which the prominent writers took an active part and the larger-than-life number of pamphlets, journals and magazines were brought out in order to cater to the growing need of the masters, who had began to read and take interest in these controversial matters.Poetry was considered inadequate for such a task and hence there was a rapid development of prose. Prosaic poetry Infect poetry also had become earthbound because it was no longer used for lofty and sublime purposes but like prose its subject matter had become admonition , satire, controversy and it wa s also written in the form of essay which was the common literary form. The chief aura of the age was therefore not poetry but prose. It was the age of satirical and argumentative and reflective poetry. Hardly any lyric or sonnet worth mentioning belongs to the period.There is a growth of schmaltzy poetic diction, and the language of poetry is cut off from the language of eitherday use. Artificial themes The Augustan literature was mainly intellectual and rational, deficient in emotion and imagination. It dealt exclusively with the artificial life of the upper classes of the city of London and its form and diction was as artificial as its theme. It had no feeling for nature and no feeling for those who lived out side the narrow confines of fashion able London society. Development of satireSatire developed as a form of literature during this age. Mostly prose writers wrote satires on the contemporary issues. The aim was the social reclamation and to criticize the attitudes and beh aviors of the age. The Whigs and the Torries members of the two important political parties which were constantly contending to control the disposal of the country- used and rewarded the writers for satirizing their enemies and undermining their reputation. Evolution of novel New literary form novel was developed.Realism of the age and development of the excellent prose style helped in the evolution of the novel. surrounded by the period (1740 and 1800) novels of all kinds were written. Four main novelists of the eighteen centuries are Richardson, Smollett, Sterne and Fielding. Deficient in drama Eighteen century was deficient in drama because the old puritanic against the theater continued and the court also withdrew its patronage. sumptuous Simith and Sheridan were the only writers who produced plays having literary merit. Literary Critics of the ageAccording to Oxford new English dictionary criticism is defined as the art of estimating the qualities and character of literary o r artistic work. It also quotes Drydens definition of criticism as a stander of judging well. Whoever thinks a faultless piece to see, Thinks what neer was, nor is, nor eer shall be. (From An judge on Criticism) Three major critics of the neoclassical age are Dryden, Pope, and Johnson. Dryden as a critic As a student of the principles of criticism, Dryden broke entirely new grounds.He penetrated more deeply then any critic had yet done into the problem of the character of poetry, and the function and meaning of a conscious work of art. In his work we have not only criticism, but criticism becoming conscious of itself, analyzing its objects with sympathy and understanding, and knowing its purpose. He always had an open mid on all literary problems and refused to be influences by the pronouncements of the French critics like Boileau, who were bent on curtailing the freedom of literary composition as well as judgment.He found no harm in the mixture of tragedy and comedy which some En glish dramatists had attempted, nor did he blame the variety and copiousness of the English plays, only if because they did not conform to the French ideal of singleness of plot. Even to Aristotle he refused to render servile obedience. Though funding in the age when Aristotles theories were widely admired, he had the courage to declare it is not enough that Aristotle had said so, for Aristotle drew his models of tragedy from Sophocles and Euripides and, if he had seen ours, might have changed his mind. Dryden was the first critic to introduce the nation that literature is an organic force which develops with the development of a nation. It is not a static but dynamic force which expresses the appetite of each new age in a manner accommodate to its growth, and changes according to the change in the disposition of the people. The critic, therefore, should study the literature of an age in the background of its environment, and not follow blindly the rules laid down by the ancien t critics like Aristotle.This, no doubt, was a revolutionary development in the field of criticism which in the seventeenth century was rule by the classical school of critics. Though Dryden expressed his diminutive opinions in the prefaces to his own literary productions, in critical studies of great writers, as well as in some critical essays as Apology for large Poetry, yet his greatest critical work in his famous. An essay of striking Poesy (1668). It is the most ambitiously constructed critical document of his career and the most important for general literary theory.In his famous Essay,(on Dramatic poesy) Dryden has discussed a number of literary problems, but his main contribution to literary criticism is his further exploration of the principles of fictitious and pedagogics. For Plato the poets world being a second-hand imitation of reality was worthless for Aristotle the poet could achieve a reality more lumbering than we meet in ordinary experience, by the proper se lection and boldness of incident for Sidney, the poet created a world better than the real world, and thereby exerted an reward influence on his readers.None of these critics suggested that there is still another way in which a poet can deal with life, and that is to present it as it is. It was Dryden who made this provable statement that a play or literature in general is a just or thoughtful image of human life. a just and lively image of human nature, representing the passions and humors, and the changes of fortune to which it is subject, for the delight and instruction of making. His achievement as a critic is, no doubt, hefty and despite his lack of system, his inconsistencies and digressions, he has something substantial to offer to his own and by and by ages.He make an effective us of the psychological, comparative and historical methods in forming literary judgments. He was the first to point out the facts that time was the final test of literary values, and also to ill ustrate this doctrine by revealing fresh beauties as three of the greatest English poets Chaucer, Spenser and Shakespeare. Though the was influenced by the critical doctrines of the ancients, yet he assimilated only those influences which found a response in his own nature and temperament.The secret of Drydens greatness as a critic lay in his native sensibility which made him keenly aware of artistic values, and helped him arrive at a dispassionate psychological analysis of those values. His judgment of Shakespeare and Chaucer was based on his own instructive reaction submitted to the test of Nature or reason, rather then on conventional rules. It resulted from an imaginative sympathy and not merely from intellect. His criticism of literature was synthetic substance rather than analytical, and therefore he could view the effects observed with a critical insight which was akin to the creative vision.It helped him penetrate to the heart of things and find meaning and coherence in t he multiplicity of those effects. Pope as a Critic Popes major work was a serial publication of four Moral Essays and a work which had nothing to do with satire, the Essay on Man. this last work deals mainly with the place of humankind with respect to the Creator, to his place in Creation, and his happiness. Some of the sentiments (notably those at the beginning of Epistle II) have mighty become axiomatic The Essay on Man was to have organize part of a series of philosophic poems on a domineering plan.The other pieces were to treat of human reason, of the use of learning, wit, education and riches, of civil and ecclesiastic polity, of the character of women Popes next publication was the Essay on Criticism, written two years earlier, and printed without the authors name. In every work encounter the writers end is one of its sensible precepts, and one that is often neglected by critics of the essay, who comment upon it as if Popes end had been to produce an original and profound treatise on first principles.His Essay on Criticism established Pope as a significant poetic voice. It also prompted the first of many printed, in the flesh(predicate) attacks. John Dennis, a prominent critic whom Pope ridiculed in the Essay, aimed his mortal response at Popes ailing body, his character, and his religious faith. Joseph Addison, on the other hand, praised Pope for both insight and execution, and Samuel Johnson later hailed the poem for exhibiting every mode of excellence that can embellish or dignify instructive composition (Life of Pope).Windsor-Forest, The Rape of the Lock, and The Temple of Fame followed and confirmed Popes place among celebrated poets, a place marked again by the publication of The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope. Pope was only 29. The poetic essay was a relatively new genre, and the Essay itself was Popes most ambitious work to that time. It was in part an attempt on Popes part to identify and refine his own positions as poet and critic, and his response to an ongoing critical debate which centered on the question of whether poetry should be natural or written according to predetermined artificial rules inherited from the classical past.His aim was simply to condense, methodize, and give as perfect and novel expression as he could to drift opinions about the poets aims and methods, and the critics duties, to what oft was thought, but near so well expressed . The town was interested in belles letters, and given to conversing on the subject Popes essay was simply a brilliant contribution to the voguish conversation Dr. Samuel Johnson Samuel was such a dominant literary figure in the second half of the eighteenth century that the period has sometimes been called the Age of Johnson, lived most of his adult life in London.Until the crown granted him a pension in 1763, he had to support himself by his literary activity, including major projects such as the Dictionary of the English Language (1755) and his edition of the plays of Shakespeare (1765), as well as periodical essay series such as the Rambler (1750-52) and the Idler (1758-60), other separate publications such as the poem The conceitedness of Human Wishes (1749) and the tale Rasselas (1759), and miscellaneous writing, mainly for a variety of periodicals. His last major literary project was the series Lives of the Poets (1779-81). whose still living writings are always ignored, a great honest man who will remain forever a figure of half fun because of the bloodsucking adoration of the greatest and most ridiculous of all biographers. For it is impossible not to believe that, without Boswell, Johnson for us today would shine like a sun in the heavens whilst Addison sat forgotten in coffee houses. (from The work of Literature, 1938) Although best remembered as the compiler of the first comprehensive English dictionary, Dr. Johnson was more than a scholar.Born at Lichfield and educated at Lichfield Grammar School and Pembroke College, Oxford, he move to London in 1737 with his wife, Tetty, who was twenty years his senior, and began to earn a living as a journalist and critic, whilst working on plays, poetry and biographies. Johnson began A Dictionary of the English Language in 1747, but did not plump out it until 1755. It made his name, but not his fortune. Another of his major works, the satire Rasselas (1759), was written specifically to raise money to pay for his mothers funeral.Johnson was at the centre of a literary circle which included such figures as Oliver Goldsmith, Edmund Burke and David Garrick. . Essays on his main works are complemented by thematic discussion of his views on the experience of women in the eighteenth century, politics, imperialism, religion, and travel as well as by chapters covering his life, conversation, letters, and critical reception. Useful reference features include a chronology and guide to further reading.The keynote to the volume is the seamlessness of Johnsons life and writing, and the incomparable humane intelligence he brought to all his activities. Accessibly written by a distinguished group of international scholars, this volume supplies a stimulating roll up of approaches, making Johnson newly relevant for our time. Despite the consistency of his critical principles, Johnsons criticism is also very sensitive to the special circumstances of its origin. He barefacedly wrote to earn money.The form in which he wrote were those demanded by the occasion, and what he wrote was adequate to what was portion for that form. Johnson was willing to recalculate work already on hand, and sometimes this work may seem out of place in its new setting but when composing he was keenly sensitive to what was appropriate to his present occasion. A reader approaching Johnsons criticism needs to lick an understanding of the demands set by each kind of piece that he wroteprefaces, dedications, lives, notes, reviews, and separate essays.The reader also needs, if possible, to develop some sense of the context of literary discussion Johnson is joining, for although the particular topics he treats may be mostly determined by this context, he is often much less denotative than a modern scholar would be about providing references to orient his reader in the controversy. His Shakespeare criticism provides a good example of most of these observations.While we are liable to find anywhere in it those gnomic statements that grow out of a full knowledge of literature and life, without a proper sense of the whole piece in which they occur we will not have a true idea of the weight Johnson intended them to have. Chronology of the writers of the age hobby is the list of the prominent writers of the age and their major works. 1. Daniel Defoe(1660-1731) for Robinson Crusoe 2. John Arbuthnot(1667-1735) for History of John Bull 1712 3. Jonathan Swift(1667-1745) for Gullivers Travels , A Tale of Tub . Addison(1672-1719) for the Spectator 5. Steele(1672-1729) for The T atler 6. Alexander Pope(1688-1744) for Dunciad, Rape of The Lock 7. Dr. Johnson(1709-1784) for Preface to Shakespeare, Lives of the Poets 8. Oliver Gold Smith(1730-1774) for The Citizen of The World 9. Charles Churchill(1731-1864) 10. Edmund Burke(1729-1797) Main Novelist of ordinal Century 1. Richardson(1689-1761) for Pamela 2. Fielding(1707-54) for Joseph Andrews 3. Smollett(1721-71) for Roderick Random 4. Sterne(1713_68) for Tristram Shandy