AD's English Literature

Joseph Addison by Sir Godfrey Kneller, Bt Will Wimble is a fictional character from the essay "Sir Roger and Will Wimble" (Spectator No. 108) written by Joseph Addison. He is portrayed as a contrasting figure to Sir Roger de Coverley, representing the social and political attitudes prevalent in early 18th-century England.  While Sir Roger represents the archetype of a traditional country gentleman with his noble birth, extensive estate, and adherence to customs, Will Wimble serves as a stark contrast. Will, the younger brother of a baronet, lacks a specific occupation or inherited wealth. Instead, he lives as a dependant on his elder brother's estate, engaging in leisurely pursuits such as hunting and various handicrafts. Will's amiable and obliging nature endears him to all, making him a cherished figure in the community. 

Introduction From the Early Codex, wood or bamboo tablets or  laboriously written out with a quill pen by scribes to the Elizabethan Gutenberg press to the present Audiobooks- books had a long long journey. There had been an enthusiastic battle of books in Elizabethan period, a bulky over production in Victorian time and a modern day world war in eBooks. It was Swift who satirically present this battle 300 years ago.  Jonathan Swift's "The Battle of the Books"   published as part of the prolegomena to his "A Tale of a Tub" in (1704),  stands as a prominent example of his satirical genius and his ability to engage in a literary debate while critiquing the prevailing scholarly climate of his time. The work emerged during a period of fierce controversy between proponents of ancient and modern writers. It is a short satire that depicts a literal battle between books in the King's Library (housed in St James's Palace at the time of the writing), as ideas and ...

"She Stoops to Conquer" is an anti-sentimental romantic comedy written by Oliver Goldsmith in 1773. The play is set in the English countryside and revolves around the theme of mistaken identities, love, intrigues and the clash between town and country values. These are all done through moral understanding of dramatic personae. The play's humor is derived from the characters' comical misunderstandings and the ridiculous situations they find themselves in. But it is to be remembered that  "She Stoops to Conquer"  is an admixture  of  hypocrisy, vanity, love-affairs of restoration  age and humanity, parental love of  sentimental dramas. Now  are  the  hypocrisy, vanity, love-affairs  seen through truest moral standards without being sentimental? At the Prologue to the play , it boldly affirms: If Comedy forsake us,      They’ll turn us out, and no one else will take us.      But why can’t I be moral?—Let me tr...

"Then I saw in my dream, that when they were got out of the wilderness, they presently saw a town before them, and the name of that town is Vanity; and at the town there is a fair kept, called Vanity Fair; it is kept all the year long; it beareth the name of Vanity Fair because the town where it is kept is lighter than vanity; and also because all that is there sold, or that cometh thither, is vanity. As is the saying of the wise, “All that cometh is vanity” (Ecclesiastes i. 2, 14; ii. 11, 17; xi. 8; Isaiah xl. 17)." The Pilgrim’s Progress by  John Bunyan  (1628-88)  John Bunyan, a Puritan preacher who was not formally educated, wrote "The Pilgrim's Progress" while he was imprisoned in 1675 for his religious practices as a Nonconformist. The book, which compares life to a journey and is written in a simple, biblical style, has become a renowned spiritual allegory in the English language. "The Pilgrim's Progress" by John Bunyan is an innovative wor...

T here had been a decay of the spirit of true comedy before Oliver Goldsmith and Richard Brinsley Sheridan of which the best exponent was Congreve in his masterpiece "The Way of the World". The Comedy of Manners, so popular in the Restoration period, was now rapidly degenerating. It became much too coarse, artificial and blatantly immoral.

“In the mean time the world was in an alarm, and all the inhabitants of it gathered together upon a spacious plain; so that I seemed to have all the species before my eyes. A voice was heard from the clouds, declaring the intention of this visit, which was to restore and appropriate to everyone living what was his due. The fear and hope, joy and sorrow, which appeared in that great assembly after this solemn declaration, are not to be expressed.”  ---- A Vision of Justice by  Joseph Addison A Vision of Justice by Joseph Addison is thematically complex, with much material to argue about. The most disputable theme or concept may be the implication of inevitability disclosed at the end of the essay: the reality of judgment.   A Vision of Justice , however, is a delightful essay which has neatness, lucidity and precision of expression. Its style is highly polished and cultivated. There is spontaneity and ease in it. It is written in a familiar and elegant mann...

  DR. JOHNSON AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES Johnson ; Goldsmith ; Burke ; Boswell ; Junius ; Hume ; Robertson ; Gibbon 1735. Johnson's translation of Lobo's "Voyage to Abyssinia." 1 738. Hurrre's " Treatise of Human Nature." 1738. Johnson's" London." 1742. Hume's "Essays." 1744. Johnson's" Life of Savage." 1749. Johnson's "Vanity of Human Wishes." 1749. Johnson's "Irene." 1750-52. Johnson's" Rambler." 1752. Hume's "Political Discourses." 1754-61. Hume's "History England." 1755. Johnson's Dictionary. English writer and lexicographer Samuel Johnson publishes his Dictionary of the English Language . Standardized spelling of English words is one of the benefits that result. 1756. Burke on the "Sublime and Beautiful." 1758-60. Johnson's "Idler." 1758. Robertson's "History of Scotland." ...

"The Life of Johnson is assuredly a great, a very great work. Homer is not more decidedly the first of heroic poets, Shakespeare is not more decidedly the first of dramatists, Demosthenes is not more decidedly the first of orators, than Boswell is the first of biographers." Thomas Babington Macaulay  (1800 - 1859) British politician, historian, and writer. Essays Contributed to the Edinburgh Review ,  "On Samuel Johnson" J ames Boswell (1740-1795) is a Scottish writer who became a close friend and biographer of the writer Samuel Johnson. Boswell, whose father was a well-known advocate, was born in Edinburgh, and educated at Edinburgh High School, the universities of Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Utrecht. Read More Criticism Boswell was admitted to both the Scottish and English bars and practiced law but devoted himself primarily to the pursuit of a literary career. His most important early works were An Account of Corsica, The Journal of a Tour to t...

Stories are of abiding interest in our modern day life and while talking about the birth of modern short story or novel, we cannot miss the immortal character sketches of The Tatler and The Spectator essays. Notably, these types of tales had continued to appear in the centuries that preceded throughout the world literature. Read More Essay Ishap’s Tales, Yataka’s Tales, Arabian Nights, Decameron or even Canterury Tales is more or less same in the genre. One source of such stories was the 18th-century English magazine The Tatler and The S pectator, where editors Joseph Addison and Sir Richard Steele published many semi-fictional sketches of contemporary character types . Now, we will shift our discussion on these periodicals for their merits of literature.  Addison went to the famous Charterhouse School in London, where he met Steele. When the Whigs returned to power he regained political favour, and his writings on public matters won him great advancemen...