The Eighteenth Century: The Intellectual and Cultural Context of English Literature, 1700-1789 (Longman Literature in English) (2nd Edition)

This is an impressive and lucid survey of eighteenth-century intellectual life, providing a real sense of the complexity of the age and of the cultural and intellectual climate in which imaginative literature flourished. It reflects on some of the dominant themes of the period, arguing against such labels as 'Augustan Age', 'Age of Enlightenment' and 'Age of Reason', which have been attached to the eighteenth-century by critics and historians. Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents List of Plates Longman Literature in English Series Editors' Preface Author's Preface 1 Science 2 Religious Ideas 3 Philosophy 4 Political Ideas and Historiography 5 Aesthetics 6 Visual Arts Architecture Sculpture Painting Landscape gardening 7 Models Roman Grecian Gothic Oriental Savage 8 Conclusion Exploration, empiricism and evolution Perception and imagination 'Age of Reason' and other clichés Chronology General Bibliographies (i) General Background (ii) Science (iii) Religious Ideas (iv) Philosophy (v) Politics (vi) Aesthetics (vii) Visual Arts (viii) Models Individual Authors Notes on biography, major works and suggested further reading Index