ABSTRACT

First published in 1974, The Augustan Vision looks at the entire spectacle of Augustan Society in an attempt to see English culture as a whole and thus gain greater insight into this critical period in English Literature. Later parts of the book explore poetry, drama, and aesthetics; that distinctive expression of the age, satire, where abuse is made into art, and the moral essay; and finally, the emerging novel, the crucial new form of this period. This is a must read for students and researchers of English literature.

chapter |3 pages

Introduction

part I|102 pages

Landscape of the Age

chapter 1|10 pages

The Shape of Society

chapter 2|10 pages

Elites and Oligarchies

chapter 3|12 pages

Ideas and Beliefs

chapter 4|11 pages

Pleasures of the Imagination

chapter 5|13 pages

The Dress of Thought

chapter 6|7 pages

Communications

chapter 7|6 pages

Roles and Identities

chapter 8|11 pages

Books and Readers

chapter 9|12 pages

Men, Women and Sex

chapter 10|8 pages

Undercurrents

part II|62 pages

The New Design: Poetry, Drama, Letters

chapter 11|13 pages

Turn of the Century

chapter 12|11 pages

The Widening Vista

chapter 13|12 pages

Sensibility

chapter 14|12 pages

The Letter-Writers

chapter 15|12 pages

Drama

part III|73 pages

Parables of Society: Satire and the Moral Essay

chapter 16|12 pages

The Satiric Inheritance

chapter 17|15 pages

Swift

chapter 18|19 pages

Pope

chapter 19|11 pages

Gay and Scriblerian Comedy

chapter 20|14 pages

Dr. Johnson

part IV|56 pages

Tales and Confessions: The Novel

chapter 21|10 pages

Origins of an Art Form

chapter 22|12 pages

Defoe

chapter 23|8 pages

Richardson

chapter 24|11 pages

Fielding

chapter 25|13 pages

Sterne and Smollett