The great age of the English essay : an anthology / / edited by Denise Gigante

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910813798403321
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: New Haven [Conn.], : Yale University Press, c2008
• ISBN: 1-282-35161-3; 9786612351617; 0-300-15181-0
• Edizione: [1st ed.]
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (464 p.)
• Collana: Lewis Walpole series in eighteenth-century culture and history
• Altri autori (Persone): GiganteDenise <1965->
• Disciplina: 824
• Soggetti: English essays; English language - Style
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: "Published with assistance from the Annie Burr Lewis Fund."--T.p. verso.; Series title present only on P. 4 of pbk. cover.
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references (p. xxxi-xxxiii).
• Nota di contenuto: Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Note on the Text -- Introduction -- Map of Eighteenth-Century London -- 1. Richard Steele (1672-1729) -- 2. Joseph Addison (1672-1719) -- 3. Eliza Haywood (c. 1693-1756) -- 4. Samuel Johnson (1709-84) -- 5. Henry Fielding (1707-54) -- 6. William Cowper (1731-1800) -- 7. Oliver Goldmsith (c. 1730-74) -- 8. James Boswell (1740-95) -- 9. Henry Mackenzie (1745-1831) -- 10. Leigh Hunt (1784-1859) -- 11. William Hazlitt (1778-1830) -- 12. Charles Lamb (1775-1834) -- 13. Thomas De Quincey (1785-1859) -- Chronology -- Glossary of Places -- Glossary of Terms
• Sommario/riassunto: From the pens of spectators, ramblers, idlers, tattlers, hypochondriacs, connoisseurs, and loungers, a new literary genre emerged in eighteenth-century England: the periodical essay. Situated between classical rhetoric and the novel, the English essay challenged the borders between fiction and nonfiction prose and helped forge the tastes and values of an emerging middle class. This authoritative anthology is the first to gather in one volume the consummate periodical essays of the period. Included are the Spectator cofounders Joseph Addison and Richard Steele, literary lion Samuel Johnson, and ; Romantic recluse Thomas De Quincey, addressing a wide variety of topics from the oddities of virtuosos to the private lives of parrots and the fantastic horrors of opium dreams. In a lively and informative introduction, Denise Gigante situates the essayists in the context of the contemporary Republic of Letters and highlights the stylistic innovations and conventions that distinguish the periodical essay as a literary form. Critical notes on the essays, a chronology, descriptions and a map of key London sites, and a glossary of eighteenth-century English terms complete the anthology-a uniquely pleasurable survey of the golden era of British essays.