Literature of the enlightenment (18th century)

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The 17^th and 18^th centuries are known in the history of European culture as the period of Enlightenment. The Enlighteners defended the interests of the common people – craftsmen, tradesmen and peasants. The central philosophical problem of the Enlightenment was that of man and his nature. The Enlighteners believed in the great educational power of art and considered it their duty to enlighten people, to help them see the roots of evil and the means of social reform.

Some of the English Enlighteners spoke in defence of the existing order. They were the moderates, represented in literature by Daniel Defoe, Richard Steele and Samuel Richardson. Others, the radicals, defended the interests of the exploited masses. The most outstanding representatives of the radicals were Jonathan Swift, Henry Fielding, Oliver Goldsmith.

In the period of Enlightenment the poetic forms of the Renaissance were replaced by prose. The didactic novel was born and became the leading genre of the period. Ordinary people, mostly representatives of the middle class, became the heroes of these novels. The characters, either good or bad, were accordingly, either rewarded or punished at the end of the navel.

The Enlightenment epoch in English literature may be divided into three periods:

I. Early Enlightenment (1688—1740).

This period saw a flowering of journalism, which played an important part in the public life of the country. Numerous journals and newspapers which came into being at the beginning of the 18^th century not only acquainted their readers with the situation at home and abroad, but also helped to shape people's views. Most popular were the satirical journals The Tatler, The Spectator, and The Englishman edited by Joseph Addison and Richard Steele. In their essays – short compositions in prose – these two writers touched on various problems of political, social and family life. The essays paved the way for the realistic novel which was brought into English literature by Daniel Defoe and Jonathan Swift.

II. Mature Enlightenment (1740—1750).

The didactic social novel was born in this period. It was represented by the works of such writers as Samuel Richardson (Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded; Clarissa, or the History of a Young Lady), Henry Fielding (The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling and other novels), and Tobias Smollett (The Expedition of Humphrey Clinker and other novels).

Henry Fielding's works were the summit of the English Enlightenment prose. In The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling the hero, a charming, cheerful, kind-hearted man, has a number of adventures and meets with a lot of people from all walks of life. The novel is set in a poor country house, in an aristocratic mansion, in an inn, in a court-room, in a prison and in the London streets. This composition of the novel enabled the author to give an all-embracing picture of the 18^th-century England.

He also elaborated a theory of the novel. In the introductory chapters to the eighteen parts of The History of Tom Jones he put forward the main requirements of a novel: to imitate life, to show the variety of human nature, to expose the causes of man's vices and to indicate ways of overcoming them.