18th-Century British Literature

What follows is a list of the primary texts upon which you will be tested. The purpose of the list is to reduce the amount of material on which you will be asked direct questions to a representative and practical size. It is not to limit the depth and breadth of your reading. Obviously, reading other primary texts, historical studies, and secondary criticism is one of the best ways of preparing to deal effectively with the texts listed here. You are, of course, responsible for a general understanding and appreciation of the genres, themes, and techniques characteristic of the period.

Be familiar with the following themes: sublime, sentimentalism, wit, nature, neoclassicism, Augustanism.

• Johnson,
  “Life of Milton”
  “Preface to Shakespeare”
  Rasselas
  The Vanity of Human Wishes
• Swift,
  Gulliver's Travels
  Battle of the Books
  Selected poems
• Addison,
  The Pleasures of the Imagination (also known as Spectators 411-21)
• Defoe,
  Any one of the three major novels
• Dryden,
  MacFlecknoe
  Religio Laici
  All for Love
  An Essay on Dramatic Poesy
• Pope,
  Rape of the Lock
  Essay on Criticism
  Essay on Man, Book 1
  The Dunciad, Book 4
  An Epistle to Arbuthnot
  An Epistle to Burlington
• Thomson,
  “Winter” from The Seasons
• Congreve,
  The Way of the World
• Wycherly,
  The Country Wife
• Goldsmith,
  The Vicar of Wakefield
  The Deserted Village
• Behn,
  Oroonoko
  The Rover
• Sterne,
  Sentimental Journey
• Burney,
  Evelina
• Richardson,
  Pamela
• Fielding,
  Jonathan Wild
• Smollett,
  Humphrey Clinker
  Roderick Random