Publisher's Synopsis
A guide to English literature from the Restoration of Charles II in 1660, to the start of the French Revolution in 1789. It combines critical essays which examine the political and social context of Augustan literature, and others concerning its individual genres - poetry, drama, and non-dramatic prose, with an A-Z section of more detailed entries. This up-to-date alphabetical section gives detailed references to, and bibliographies for, individual authors, theatres and theatre performers, plot summaries, discussions of major works and definitions of important literary terms. The book is easy-to-use and fully cross-referenced.;It re-examines the shifting meaning of Augustanism, and provides both thorough descriptions of, and contemporary critical approaches to, texts from major male and female writers including Dryden, Behn, Astell, Swift, Pope, Richardson, Centlivre, Walpole, Goldsmith, Sheridan, Burney, and many others.;Eva Simmons has taught and lectured in English at London and Cambridge Universities. She has published articles on Restoration drama and nineteenth-century fiction, and appeared as a critic of Restoration drama and poetry on Radio 4. She now works as a journalist and teacher of journalism for the BBC.
