INGLESE

THE RESTORATION AND THE AUGUSTAN AGE

THE RESTORATION OF THE MONARCHY

Charles II admired Louis XIV, so when he came back to England he established a court
devoted to pleasure.
In 1662 Charles patronized the Royal Society, an organization of scientists and intellectuals.
The landowners resumed their leadership and the Parliament (Cavalier Parliament) met in
1661. It ordered the bodies of regicides to be exhumed and hanged. A series of Act were
passed to try and restore the order.

In 1665 there was the bubonic plague, while in 1666 the Great Fire destroyed London.
Charles II was able to finance his restoration with the aid of France. He then signed the
Treaty of Dover against Holland that would restore Britain to Catholicism and would assure
the succession of his brother James.

FROM THE GLORIOUS REVOLUTION TO QUEEN ANNE

James II began to place Catholics in positions and wanted his son to be his successor.
The Parliament was alarmed so they began to negotiate with William of Orange (husband of
Mary) who marched across the South and won.
A revolution had made the Parliament choose the monarch for the first time (Bloodless
Revolution). The Toleration Act assured more tolerance (not Catholics) and the Bill of Rights
that restored the rights of the Magna Carta and the Petition of Rights.
In 1701 the parliament passed the Act of Settlement that declared Anna (Mary’s sister) the
heir and so in 1702 she became Queen of England.

Anne was a popular queen that made important political decisions.

In 1707 the Act of Union was passed and unified England and Scotland in The United
Kingdom of Great Britain, while Ireland remained a separated kingdom.
At the end of the War of the Spanish Succession, in 1713, they signed the Treaty of Union
with France that required the nation to recognise the Protestant succession and expel the
exiled Stuart; it gave Britain Canada and the monopoly of the slave trade.
When she died in 1714, George I, inherited two kingdoms and twelve colonies.

THE EARLY HANOVERIANS

George I had to rely upon a cabinet composed of opposing parties Whigs and Tories.
Robert Walpole became the first Prime Minister and his anti-war government was the
longest. He promoted trade, reduced land tax and restored trust and order. He was awarded
a house and this period was known as the golden age.
The political debate extended to an intellectual elite especially in coffee houses. The new
middle class enjoyed greater social mobility. Methodism then stressed respectability and
moral dignity, the importance of living with temperance and method.
He was succeeded by his son George II. In 1739 war broke out. In 1742 Walpole was forced
to resign. In 1746 the Jocobites were defeated (Charles) and hanged.
The Prime Minister in 1756 became William Pitt, who guided Britain’s foreign policy by
mercantilism (Robison Crusoe).
In 1756 the Seven Years War broke out between Britain and Prussia vs France and Austria.
They then won the first ever world war.
George II was succeeded by George III.

THE AGE OF REASON

There was a rejection of extremism and the conception that man had an innate sense of
what was right and what was wrong.

The “art of pleasing” became the ideal of the century. This demanded simplicity and
emotional authenticity (gentleman). However that also set a counter-culture of manly.
There was a growing tendency towards material gain.

English women were active in social and cultural life (friends, theaters, coffee houses etc.).
Some began a writing career. So, women readers and writers influenced the rise of novel
about ordinary people and epistolary. Overall access to books increased.

Enlightened thinkers not only wanted to understand the world but to improve it.
There was a new taste for landscape art since this rational age aimed at improving nature.
So, The “English Garden” was invented and was copied all over the world. The English
landscape began to take its modern form as the principles of the Enlightenment were in
practice.

The new optimism and the belief that reason could improve society and discover new
horizons encouraged exploration. These were commissioned to the Royal Society.

RESTORATION POETRY AND PROSE

The restoration was a periodo of innovation. Verse rejected complexity in favour of simplicity.
Order and clarity were the result of the exercise of reason. The real world was the main
object of interest. Also, the true spirit was satiric. In this periodo the main poet was John
Dryden.

As for prose, the rational spirit was seen in the works of the rationalist philosophers and in
the scientific studies of Newton. Also individual experience and reason couldn’t be
separated. The new scientific belief encouraged self-confidence and belief in human
progress. Lastly the Royal Society decided to examine and improve the English Language.
RESTORATION DRAMA
The restoration of the Stuart marked a decisive decision against the Puritan morals, which
led to the closing down of theaters. They were made legal again in 1660 and immediately
began a great change. The theaters were roofied and lit with candles. Then the audience sat
in the galleries, boxes and on benches. Boxes were then made very fashionable. The prices
were expensive. Ancress began playing female roles and the actors were paid. The theaters
were now a place to meet people and to feel fashionable.

The “comedy of manners” made fun of the highly sophisticated society where the characters
were more likely to be types. The plot often involved cleaver handling of the situation and
intrigue; the use of prose dialogue made everything more realistic. Also the other realistic
element was the theme of marriage manly liked to sex and money.

A SURVEY OF AUGUSTAN LITERATURE

The literature of the Augustan Age reflected the economic and intellectual progress of the
period. Remarkable output and a growing interest in reading. Circulating libraries led to an
increase in the reading public.

The growing importance of the middle class had a strong importance in literature
encouraging the rise of prose. Power of reason find his expression in novel and journalism.
The idea that reason could be used to analyse the world rose. Puritan morality still played a
leading role and so reason and religion were combined. A compromise was then the most
important trend of the 18th century.

The poet saw his role as the provider of models of refined behavior. Satire and mock-heroic
were the favourite in the heroic style of epic. They used poetic diction: standard phrases and
periphrases as well as Latinised world construction.

The middle class began to enjoy theaters particularly the mixture of political satire and love
interest. So, the comedy of manners was replaced by the sentimental comedy.

THE RISE OF THE NOVEL

Daniel Defoe and Richardson are regarded as the fathers of the English novel. The 18th
century novelist was the spokesman of the middle class.

The plots were abandoned. And the writer’s primary aim was to write in a simple way to be
understood. Speed and copiousness became the most important economic virtues.

The story was appealing to the tradesman. The sense of reward and punishment was
related to the Puritan ethics of the middle class.

The writer aimed at realism and so the characters were always the “bourgeois man” and his
problems. He was a well-defined characters and the reader was expected to sympathise
with him. Characters were then divided in two groups: people who believed in reasons and
people who couldn’t control their passion. Contemporary names were also sign of realism.
The writer wrote either in third person (omnipresent) or in first. A chronological series of
events was adapted.

Great attention was paid to the setting: time and place were considered two different aspects
of the same reality. Specific references and detailed descriptions of interns made all more
realistic.

The 18th century novel developed different sub-genres:

-​ The realistic novel focuses on realistic description of time and place;
-​ The utopian novel that shown imaginary nations to satirise contemporary society;
-​ The epistolary novel were letters exchanged between characters;
-​ The picaresque novel is episodic and had as protagonist a young hero and his
misfortunes. Especially escaped by his wit.
-​ The anti-novel showed that the orderly narratives of events had little relation to the
disorder of the human mind.

DANIEL DEFOE
He was born in 1660 into a Protestant family witch refused the Church of England
(Dissenters). He studied at Newington Green modern languages, economics and geography.
He began working in business and suffered two bankruptcies. He started to write in the Whig
paper “The Review” constantly three times a week.

He became famous and well-paid till Queen Anne who had him arrested. He denied his
belief to be freed and became a secret agent.

In his 60th he became writing novels and in the 1719 he published Robinson Crusoe. His
last novel was Roxana and thanks to the money he earned in the last period of his life he
lived comfortably till his death in 1731.

Defoe is generally regarded as the father of the English novel and became the basic for
realistic novels. His novels are fictional autobiographies always pretending to be true stories.

The structure is characterised by a series of episodes of a single hero’s adventure. The lack
of a coherent plot was due to the fact that he never revised or planned his work. He used a
retrospective first-person narration so the characters could be presented from the inside.
They also usually appeared in isolation.

ROBINSON CRUSOE
The main character is Robinson Kreutznaer or Crusoe, born in York in 1632. At the age of 19
he left his home and began travelling around the world. In his second voyage he was
captured by pirates but managed to escape and get to Brazil. He then becomes the owner of
a very big plantation. When he goes off to get more slaves he suffers a second shipwreck on
a desert island where he’ll remain for 28 years. He writes a diary about his loneliness. Then,
he rescues Friday from cannibalist and with his help he is able to return to land. The novel
ends with Robison returning to England and his discovery that his plantation made him rich.
The setting of the most part of the story is the island. A place where ha has to prove his
qualities and where he organises a primitive empire on the island becoming the prototype of
the English colonised → chance to exploit and dominate nature.

The hero belongs to the middle class and is restless in waiting to find his own identity. The
story begins with an act of transgression and leads to a situation of separation. Life of the
island develops the issue of the relationship between the individual and society. The
individual can shape his own destiny through action. Robison had a pragmatic and
individualistic outlook and his objective and rational approach to reality is seen in his
journal-keeping. Friday is then the first native character of the literature, he is attractive and
lively and also is the symbol of colonization.

The novel had clear and precise details. The language is simple, matter-of-fact and concrete
to reinforce the realism of the first-person narrative.

Crusoe is full of religious references to God and Providence and can be read as a spiritual
autobiography. Robison prays to be freed from sin rather than to be rescued. And so Deofe
explores the conflict between economic and spiritual motivation.

I WAS BORN OF A GOOD FAMILY

It’s the start of the novel and its analysis is in the book. But here you need to focus on
setting, details and first person narrator. Also, especially good descriptions.

A DREADFUL DELIVERANCE

Here is the narration of the shipwreck and we pay attention to the first person, the emotion
and the setting since it’s introduced in the main set. The island. Also we are feeling anxious
while reading about his misfortune.

MAN FRIDAY
In this one Robisn describes very well and very meticulously. We can also understand the
mental belief of the time by the stereotypes that Robison associated with Friday who is then
to call him “master”.
Also so exploiting the role of the coloniser.

JONATHAN SWIFT

Jonathan Swift was born in 1667 in Dublin. As a Whis statesman his first works were satirical
and among his best we remember: “The Battle of the Books” and “A Tale of Tub”. In 1694 he
returned to Ireland and was ordained Anglican priest. For a time he wrote little, but after a
few years he began to write pamphlets denouncing the injustice that Ireland suffered. And in
1726 he published his masterpiece “Gulliver’s Travels”. He died in 1745.
Swift is without doubt one of the most controversial writers. He was seriously concerned with
politics and society (conservative). He defined himself as a heater of man and reason was
an instrument that must be used properly. Swift found in irony and satire the means that
suited his temperaments and his interests. He usually achieved the parody.

GULLIVER’S TRAVELS
The novel has four setting:
1.​ Land of Lilliput → small people where Gulliver plays the role of a benevolent giant;
2.​ Land of Brobdingnag → race of giants where Gullivers had to use his wits to survive;
3.​ Island of Laputa → satires the scientific community;
4.​ Land of the Houyhnhnms → intellectual horse to criticise humanity.
With this setting he can discuss anything he feels is wrong.

The novel consists of four books.And while in the first voyage he can return to normal, after
the fourth Gulliver decides to live alone with animals and to break free of society.

Gulliver is a typical European. The transformation is not linked to any extravagance. Only
when circumstances force him to think does Gulliver learn something and develop a critical
awareness of the limitations of European values. Even if he doesn't question European
values and still defend its history. Swift’s originality was that Gulliver was always displaced.

Swift looked to the extensive literature of travel, real and imaginary. Imaginary voyage was a
vehicle for their theories. He is cast among no sense children of nature. They all live in highly
organised societies and are governed by institutions. Opposition between rationality and
animality. Also political allegory is made through allusion.

Swift’s masterpiece can be read on different levels. It has been widely read as a tale for
children. It can also be read as a political allegory of Swift’s time. His main satiric point was
to criticize the political, social and religious conflicts as well as the problem caused by the
scientific community. Another interpretation was that Swift was mentally unbalanced to
neutralise the satire. Gullivel no longer speaks for the author but as a warning for us.

He tells his experiences in first-person perspective as a matter-of-fact. It’s free of colouring

and records details with precision of a scientific instrument.

THE PROJECT
Scientific community particularly focusing on the projects and how they work. Lots of
descriptions.

THE EGGS
The origin of the war between Lilliput and other village. Also, to note the fact that a riot could
change history.