ABSTRACT
The eighteenth century is sometimes referred to as the Augustan age, a term meant to imply a comparison or similarity with the literary brilliance of Rome under the Emperor Augustus (27 bc—ad 14) when Virgil, Horace and Ovid flourished. The seeds of modern western European society began to be laid in the eighteenth century. The Restoration period had confidence, energy, and vitality. The eighteenth century cooled down some of the excesses of this period, and added its own brand of confidence and a belief in progress. Perhaps rather oddly in the light of this forward-looking element, the eighteenth century also tended to look back to the classical age for its inspiration in literature. Classical models began to exert a grip on literature that was initially beneficial and a force for discipline, but which then became a stranglehold, only broken by the force of the Romantic movement. Read the definitions given of ‘classical’ and ‘Romantic’ in Chapter 3 of this book.
