Economic, social, cultural and political life in Britain in the 18th century was greatly influenced by what happened in the period which had preceded it. Political parties enjoyed increased power as a result of the Civil War and the deposition of James II in the 17th century. Enclosure, which had started long before 1700, stimulated migration to the cities and more effective farming techniques in the 18th century. The developments in the 18th century are discussed in this paper as pertaining to different spheres of life: society, economy, politics, culture and technology. Finally, the most representative novelists of the period are presented.
TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE IN THE PERIOD
As has been stated above, technical innovation contributed to industrialization and the social change in the period. The most relevant were inventions for the textile industry (the shuttle, the spinning jenny, spinning mule), which made spinning faster and the products more resistant. Iron production increased spectacularly when the Darby family discovered how to melt iron by using coke. John Watt improved the steam engine. The appearance of inventions was in accordance with the classical spirit of the 18th century, when reason was highly esteemed.
In art, conventional forms became popular and they were considered the measure of good taste and elegance. It was in most part the age of Neoclassicism (the Augustan Age), also called the Enlightenment and the new trends were associated with the Whig government of liberal-minded politicians as opposed to royal autocracy with its connection to continental tyrannies.
In the field of literature, Augustan influences produced a scientific desire to organise and improve the language by means of prescriptive dictionaries, the most notable being that compiled by Samuel Johnson. The most representative poet of the time, Alexander Pope also stuck to classical forms as he only used the closed heroic couplet: two rhymed decasyllabic lines with a complete sense in themselves.
While the 18th century is known as the Augustan Age, it has to be noted that non-Augustan trends also appeared at that time and the best example is the appearance of the novel as a distinct literary form. The first English novels differ greatly as far as the style is concerned, and the most representative writers, Defoe, Richardson, Fielding, Sterne and Swift, each write in their individual manner.
In art, conventional forms became popular and they were considered the measure of good taste and elegance. It was in most part the age of Neoclassicism (the Augustan Age), also called the Enlightenment and the new trends were associated with the Whig government of liberal-minded politicians as opposed to royal autocracy with its connection to continental tyrannies.
In the field of literature, Augustan influences produced a scientific desire to organise and improve the language by means of prescriptive dictionaries, the most notable being that compiled by Samuel Johnson. The most representative poet of the time, Alexander Pope also stuck to classical forms as he only used the closed heroic couplet: two rhymed decasyllabic lines with a complete sense in themselves.
While the 18th century is known as the Augustan Age, it has to be noted that non-Augustan trends also appeared at that time and the best example is the appearance of the novel as a distinct literary form. The first English novels differ greatly as far as the style is concerned, and the most representative writers, Defoe, Richardson, Fielding, Sterne and Swift, each write in their individual manner.
THE GREATEST NOVELIST IN THE PERIOD
A novel may be defined as a work of narrative fiction, usually in prose. As a distinct literary form, the novel came into being in Britain in the eighteenth century. Some of the factors which are said to have influenced its developments can be divided into two main sources of influence; literary influences as the development of journalism and parallel art forms, biographies, diaries and personal memoirs were very fashionable in the 18th century; letter writing was cultivated as an art, popularity of travel literature and the previous Restoration Comedies of Manners, and the picaresque or the mock romance of knight errantry (such as Don Quixote de la Mancha, 1605-1615 by Miguel de Cervantes) where, in comic vein, wandering knights try to put injustices to right, were popular.
Other influences as Puritanism, which had always encouraged a practical attitude to world affairs, a belief in the individual conscience, a spirit of self-enquiry and a love of truth. The rise of the middle-class, as education was available to more people and there was more leisure time available, particularly for women. There was a greater individualism, a belief that one must earn a living by one’s own efforts, there was also a growing desire to have new worlds opened up outside one’s immediate existence. There was a greater spiritual and social alienation and a belief that human destiny was uncertain. Scientific philosophy, the optimistic philosophy of “natural philosophers” as John Locke (1632-1704), was consistent with and helped lead to, a greater belief in reason at the expense of imagination. After the Restoration, moderation and religious tolerance replaced passionate religious conviction, and attention was more focused on the social destiny of the individual and the facts and circumstances of the social world.
DANIEL DEFOE
His style is famous for its simplicity and colloquial character. Besides, Defoe’s most important innovation in fiction was his complete narrative realism. In fact he wrote journalistic texts which might be taken for fiction, and vice versa.
Other influences as Puritanism, which had always encouraged a practical attitude to world affairs, a belief in the individual conscience, a spirit of self-enquiry and a love of truth. The rise of the middle-class, as education was available to more people and there was more leisure time available, particularly for women. There was a greater individualism, a belief that one must earn a living by one’s own efforts, there was also a growing desire to have new worlds opened up outside one’s immediate existence. There was a greater spiritual and social alienation and a belief that human destiny was uncertain. Scientific philosophy, the optimistic philosophy of “natural philosophers” as John Locke (1632-1704), was consistent with and helped lead to, a greater belief in reason at the expense of imagination. After the Restoration, moderation and religious tolerance replaced passionate religious conviction, and attention was more focused on the social destiny of the individual and the facts and circumstances of the social world.
DANIEL DEFOE
His style is famous for its simplicity and colloquial character. Besides, Defoe’s most important innovation in fiction was his complete narrative realism. In fact he wrote journalistic texts which might be taken for fiction, and vice versa.
His first novel, Robinson Crusoe (1719), was a good example of the two main features of his style. It can now be classified as belonging to the genre of prose romance and it is a story of a man who is shipwrecked off South America. The narrative’s inspiration can be found in Puritan spiritual autobiographies and allegories, real adventure stories of the time, and the contemporary fascination with exotic travels and their hardships. Crusoe’s behaviour can be seen as a reflection of belief in the mercantilist mentality of the British Empire and his relationship with Friday hints at the superiority of the civilized man.
Moll Flanders (1722) is considered the best of Defoe’s novels. It is a novel of character in which the main character was abandoned by her convict mother. She herself did not use the opportunity of good education and led an adventurous life, with transportation to America, various marriages, prison sentences, etc. It poses questions about the motives for human conduct.
Samuel Richardson
Richardson’s experience as a story teller and a letter writer among young ladies in London produced the father of the English novel. Due to his experience, his stories were told entirely through letters sent by those participating or observing the events, and, thus they belonged to the genre of epistolary novel. His novels are full of suspense because characters only know one side of the event. The effect is increased by the use of the present tense, which reflects immediacy of the situation.
Pamela (1740), his first novel, was a very successful novel of character. The heroine is a teenage servant in a household where here mistress has just died. The lady’s son conceives a lustful passion for Pamela and he tries to take advantage of his position. She is partly revolted and partly attracted by the amorous Mr. B. Finally, he proposes marriage to her and she gladly accepts. Such a happy ending is not the case in Richardson’s longest novel in English, Clarissa (1747).
HENRY FIELDING
In comparison with the colloquial Richardson, Fielding was aristocratic, well brought-up and cultivated. Probably that is why Fielding’s first novel Shamela (1741) was a satire on Pamela, in which he openly rejects the bourgeois moral code of bargaining with virtue, represented by the main character from Richardson’s novel.
Fielding’s best known novels are Joseph Andrews (1742) and Tom Jones (1749). Although they evidently deal with the lives of their main characters, mentioned in the titles, these novels portray them as human types, instead of providing any individual psychological analysis. The tone of the stories is mostly funny and full of common sense, never tragic or sentimental.
Fielding’s masterpiece is Tom Jones. The main character is found as an abandoned baby and in the end discovered to be an heir of a fortune. He goes through adventures and misfortunes which finally lead him to marry his original love, Sophia. There is a moral commentary in the preface to each of the 18 books composing the story. The portrait of the virtuous Sophia is triumphantly free from stereotypes while Tom Jones himself is both a vital and a fallible hero, generous and imprudent but ultimately happy.
OTHER NOVELISTS
There are at least two more novelists worth mentioning when talking about the 18th century literature: Jonathan Swift and Lawrence Sterne.
Jonathan Swift wrote different types of texts, but he is widely known for his masterpiece Gulliver’s Travels (1726). The main character goes on four different voyages, to imaginary lands. The settings and the events of the story form a satirical view on the 18th century society, shows criticism of the treatment of the Irish and Brutal Yahoos as comic characters and of human vices in general. Due to its imaginative, witty and simple character, the novel became and has remained a favourite children’s book.
Lawrence Sterne is famous due to his exceptional work entitled Tristam Shandy (1759-67). The style of the novel is entirely unconventional with an unconventional time scheme, digressive-progressive style and significance out of juxtaposition and relative meaning, written according to Locke’s (18th philosopher) concept of association of ideas and has no plot. However, the text is extremely amusing through its satirical approach. Due to his experimenting with form, Sterne is often considered as the forerunner of the twentieth century Modernist movement and modern psychological fiction
CONCLUSION
As was said in the introduction, the developments in the 18th century also prepared the ground for what happened in the following centuries. The rapid expansion of the canal system and inventions in the textile and iron industries weighed strongly in the success of the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century, to the same extent as the growth of commerce did. Likewise, cultural trends of the period opened the way for the development of the Victorian novel as well as of the modern novel in the 20th century.
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