James Sambrook - The Eighteenth Century: The Intellectual and Cultural Context of English Literature, 1700–1789

The Eighteenth Century

The Intellectual and Cultural Context
of English Literature, 17001789

General Editors: David Carroll and Michael Wheeler

Lancaster University

For a complete list of titles see pages x and xi

Where Covent-gardens famous Temple stands,
That boast the Work of Jones immortal Hands;
Columns, with plain Magnificence, appear,
And graceful Porches lead along the Square.

(John Gay, Trivia, II, 3436)

The Eighteenth Century

THE INTELLECTUAL AND
CULTURAL CONTEXT OF
ENGLISH LITERATURE
1700 1789

Second Edition

James Sambrook

First published 1986 by Pearson Education Limited
Second edition 1993
Fourth impression 1997

Published 2013 by Routledge
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711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

Copyright 1986, 1993 Taylor & Francis.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Notices
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ISBN 13: 978-0-582-21926-7 (pbk)

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is
available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Sambrook, James.
The eighteenth century: the intellectual and cultural context of
English literature, 17001789 / James Sambrook. 2nd ed.
p. cm. (Longman literature in English series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-582-21926-4 (PPR)
1. English literature 18th century History and criticism.
2. Great Britain Intellectual life 18th century. 3. Great
Britain Civilization 18th century. I. Title. II Title: 18th century.
III Series.
PR441.S33 1993
820.9005 dc20
92-42392
CIP

Set in 9/11 pt Bembo by 5L

Between pages 66 and 67.

Between pages 162 and 163.

General Editors: David Carroll and Michael Wheeler

Lancaster University

Pre-Renaissance English Literature

* English Literature before Chaucer Michael Swanton
English Literature in the Age of Chaucer

* English Medieval Romance W. R.J. Barron

English Poetry

* English Poetry of the Sixteenth Century Gary Waller (Second Edition)

* English Poetry of the Seventeenth Century George Parfitt (Second Edition)
English Poetry of the Eighteenth Century, 17001789

* English Poetry of the Romantic Period, 17891830 J. R. Watson (Second Edition)

* English Poetry of the Victorian Period, 18301890 Bernard Richards
English Poetry of the Early Modern Period, 18901940

* English Poetry since 1940 Neil Corcoran

English Drama

English Drama before Shakespeare

* English Drama: Shakespeare to the Restoration, 15901660 Alexander Leggatt

* English Drama: Restoration and Eighteenth Century, 16601789 Richard W. Bevis

English Drama: Romantic and Victorian, 17891890
English Drama of the Early Modern Period, 18901940
English Drama since 1940

English Fiction

* English Fiction of the Eighteenth Century, 17001789 Clive T. Probyn

* English Fiction of the Romantic Period, 17891830 Gary Kelly

* English Fiction of the Victorian Period, 18301890 Michael Wheeler (Second Edition)

* English Fiction of the Early Modern Period, 18901940 Douglas Hewitt
English Fiction since 1940

English Prose

* English Prose of the Seventeenth Century, 15901700 Roger Pooley
English Prose of the Eighteenth Century
English Prose of the Nineteenth Century

Criticism and Literary Theory

Criticism and Literary Theory from Sidney to Johnson
Criticism and Literary Theory from Wordsworth to Arnold
Criticism and Literary Theory from 1890 to the Present

The Intellectual and Cultural Context

The Sixteenth Century

* The Seventeenth Century, 16031700 Graham Parry

* The Eighteenth Century, 17001789 James Sambrook (Second Edition)
The Romantic Period, 17891830

* The Victorian Period, 18301890 Robin Gilmour
The Twentieth Century: 1890 to the Present

American Literature

American Literature before 1880

* American Poetry of the Twentieth Century Richard Gray

* American Drama of the Twentieth Century Gerald M. Berkowitz

* American Fiction 18651940 Brian Lee

* American Fiction since 1940 Tony Hilfer

* TwentiethCentury America Douglas Tallack

Other Literatures

Irish Literature since 1800
Scottish Literature since 1700
Australian Literature

* Indian Literature in English William Walsh
African Literature in English: East and West

* Southern African Literatures Michael Chapman
Caribbean Literature in English

* Canadian Literature in English W. J. Keith

* Already published

The multi-volume Longman Literature in English Series provides students of literature with a critical introduction to the major genres in their historical and cultural context. Each volume gives a coherent account of a clearly defined area, and the series, when complete, will offer a practical and comprehensive guide to literature written in English from Anglo-Saxon times to the present. The aim of the series as a whole is to show that the most valuable and stimulating approach to the study of literature is that based upon an awareness of the relations between literary forms and their historical contexts. Thus the areas covered by most of the separate volumes are defined by period and genre. Each volume offers new and informed ways of reading literary works, and provides guidance for further reading in an extensive reference section.

In recent years, the nature of English studies has been questioned in a number of increasingly radical ways. The very terms employed to define a series of this kind period, genre, history, context, canon have become the focus of extensive critical debate, which has necessarily influenced in varying degrees the successive volumes published since 1985. But however fierce the debate, it rages around the traditional terms and concepts.