1. The Age of Prose And Reason
Name : Jitendra V. Sumra
Roll No. : 16
Semester : 03
Year : 2012-13
Paper No. : 102
Paper Name : The Neo-Classical Literature
Year : 2012-13
Department Of English,
Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji University Bhavnagar

2. Introduction
• Literature of the age is concerned with “nature
"human nature, Supremacy of reason.
• Unity in the works of all writes.
• The age is known as classical age.

3. • The Writers of this age were greatly influenced by the
classical writers, so they imitated them in their work.
• The age wished to understand, not to imagine.

4. Definition of Neoclassical age
• The 18th century in English literature has been called
the Neo classical age ,Augustan age and the age of
reason.
• The term “the Augustan age “ comes from the self-
conscious imitation of the original Augustan writers,
Virgil, and Horace by many of the writers of the
period.

5. • Specifically, the neo- Classical age was the period after
the pest oration era of the death of Alexander Pope.
• The major writers of the age were Pope and John Dryden
in poetry and Jonathan Swift and Joseph Addition in
prose.
• Dryden forms the link between restoration and Augustan
literature.

6. 1].Dryden forms the link between restoration and
Augustan literature.
• Dryden wrote ribald comedies in the restoration vein ,
his verse satire were highly admired by the generation
of poets who followed him and his writing on
literature were very much in a Neo-classical spirit.

7. • But more than any other it is the name of Alexander
Pope which is associated with the epoch known as the
Neo-Classical age.
• The literature of this period which defined confirmed
to Popes aesthetic principles and could thus quality as
being Augustan is distinguished by its striving for
harmony and precision.

8. • The works of Dryden ,Pope , Swift, Addition and John Gay ,as
well as many of their contemporizes exhibit qualities of order,
clarity, and stylistic decorum that were formed in the major
critical documents of the age.
• A large part of Popes work belongs to this category, which
exemplifies the artificiality of Neo classicism more thoroughly
than does any other literary form of the period.

9. • The literary scene of the early 18th century were the
two periodical publications by Joseph Addition and
Richard Steel, The Tatler and The Spectator . Both
writers are ranked among the minor masters of
English prose style and credited with raising the
general cultural level of the English middle classes.

10. The essays are discussion of current events,
Literature and gossip often written in a highly
ironic and refined style.
In the same vein, many of the important genres
of this period were adaptations of classical
forms, Mock epic, translation and imitation.

11. • Example Of Mock Epic :
• 1]The Dunciad
• 2] John Dryden‟s Macflecknoe (1682)
• 3]Pope‟s The Rape of the Lock (1714)
• 4] The Battle of the Books - Jonathan (1404).
• Often considered one of the highest achievements
of mock epic poetry, the heroic action of epic is
maintained but the scale is sharply reduced.

12. • The political prose satires of may Delarivere manly were racy
expose of high- society scandals written in the tradition of the
love letter Behan‟s erotic „‟roman a clef. Manley „s novels
“The secret history queen Zairians and the Zairians „ and The
new Atlantis were widely popular in their day and helped
created an audience for prose narratives that way large enough
to suppose the new breed of the profession novelists.

13. • Major Writers:
• Alexander Pope:
• His works :
• The pastorals’
• Essay on man,
• Essay on criticism reflects his desire to rival Boileau’s art poetic.
• The Rape of the Lock.
•
•
• Steel and Addition:
• The tattler in 1709 and The spectator in 1711
• The spectator includes representative of various section of society.
• The work Addition reveals at once the charm of the old England and the
coming of the new

14. • Jonathan swift:
• Battle of the books
• The first noteworthy book published in 1704,
• It is about the dispute between ancient and modern
author.
• Swift gives the theme a half allegories mock heroic
satire in which the books in a liberty at length.

15. • Dr. Johnson :
• The produced two satire, London[1738] and The
Vanity of Human Wishes.[1749]
• “Irene” is a tragedy in this work he observed the rules
of French rhetorical tragedy.
• “Rambler” and “Idler” are the results of his own
personal reflection on the life.

16. • Oliver Goldsmith [1730- 74]
• Traveler[1764] records his impressions, as a Traveler
on foot across the continent of France, Switzerland
and Italy and reflects agreeably on the character these
various countries.
• In 1770 he published his “Deserted Village" an
idealization of the Irish Village of lissoy in which his
childhood was passed.