Sterne.  Works:  edited by Saintsbury (Dent); Tristram Shandy, and A Sentimental Journey, in Temple Classics, Morley’s Universal Library, etc.  Life:  by Fitzgerald; by Traill (English Men of Letters); Life and Times, by W.L.  Cross (Macmillan).  Essays, by Thackeray; by Bagehot, in Literary Studies.

Horace Walpole.  Texts:  Castle of Otranto, in King’s Classics, Cassell’s National Library, etc.  Letters, edited by C.D.  Yonge.  Morley’s Walpole, in Twelve English Statesmen (Macmillan).  Essay, by L. Stephen, in Hours in a Library.  See also Beers’s English Romanticism.

Frances Burney (Madame d’Arblay).  Texts:  Evelina, in Temple Classics, 2 vols. (Macmillan).  Diary and Letters, edited by S.C.  Woolsey.  Seeley’s Fanny Burney and her Friends.  Essay, by Macaulay.

SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS. 1.  Describe briefly the social development of the eighteenth century.  What effect did this have on literature?  What accounts for the prevalence of prose?  What influence did the first newspapers exert on life and literature?  How do the readers of this age compare with those of the Age of Elizabeth?

2.  How do you explain the fact that satire was largely used in both prose and poetry?  Name the principal satires of the age.  What is the chief object of satire? of literature?  How do the two objects conflict?

3.  What is the meaning of the term “classicism,” as applied to the literature of this age?  Did the classicism of Johnson, for instance, have any relation to classic literature in its true sense?  Why is this period called the Augustan Age?  Why was Shakespeare not regarded by this age as a classical writer?

4. Pope.  In what respect is Pope a unique writer?  Tell briefly the story of his life.  What are his principal works?  How does he reflect the critical spirit of his age?  What are the chief characteristics of his poetry?  What do you find to copy in his style?  What is lacking in his poetry?  Compare his subjects with those of Burns of Tennyson or Milton, for instance.  How would Chaucer or Burns tell the story of the Rape of the Lock?  What similarity do you find between Pope’s poetry and Addison’s prose?

5. Swift.  What is the general character of Swift’s work?  Name his chief satires.  What is there to copy in his style?  Does he ever strive for ornament or effect in writing?  Compare Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels with Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, in style, purpose of writing, and interest.  What resemblances do you find in these two contemporary writers?  Can you explain the continued popularity of Gulliver’s Travels?

6. Addison and Steele.  What great work did Addison and Steele do for literature?  Make a brief comparison between these two men, having in mind their purpose, humor, knowledge of life, and human sympathy, as shown, for instance, in No. 112 and No. 2 of the Spectator Essays.  Compare their humor with that of Swift.  How is their work a preparation for the novel?