The Cambridge Companion to English Literature, 1740–1830

by Thomas Keymer (Editor), Jon Mee (Editor)

This 2004 volume offers an introduction to British literature that challenges the traditional divide between eighteenth-century and Romantic studies. Contributors explore the development of literary genres and modes through a period of rapid change. They show how literature was shaped by historical factors including the development of the book trade, the rise of literary criticism and the expansion of commercial society and empire. The first part of the volume focuses on broad themes including taste and aesthetics, national identity and empire, and key cultural trends such as sensibility and the gothic. The second part pays close attention to the work of individual writers including Sterne, Blake, Barbauld and Austen, and to the role of literary schools such as the Lake and Cockney schools. The wide scope of the collection, juxtaposing canonical authors with those now gaining new attention from scholars, makes it essential reading for students of eighteenth-century literature and Romanticism.

Genres: Books About Books

332 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 17, 2004

About the author

Thomas Keymer is University Professor and Chancellor Jackman Professor of English at the University of Toronto, where he is affiliated with University College, and Director of U of T's Collaborative Program in Book History & Print Culture, based at Massey College, where he is a Senior Fellow. Born in London, he studied at Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge, under the direction of J. H. Prynne, and was later Research Fellow and Quatercentenary Visiting Fellow at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. Before moving to Toronto with his family in 2006, he taught for six years at Royal Holloway, University of London, and for ten years at St Anne’s College, Oxford, where he remains a Supernumerary Fellow. He has also held a Visiting Professorship at the University of Exeter. For the past few years he has served as General Editor of the Review of English Studies, a Senior Editor of Oxford Handbooks Online, and co-General Editor of the Cambridge Edition of the Works & Correspondence of Samuel Richardson. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, the Royal Historical Society and the English Association, and he was recently awarded a 2015 Guggenheim Fellowship. His research and teaching focus mainly on Restoration, eighteenth-century and Romantic-period British and Irish literature, and he has particular interests in narrative and the novel; print culture and history of the book; literature, politics and national identities; literature and law (especially seditious libel and censorship in general); theories of intertextuality, influence and reception; the theory and practice of textual editing.

Reviews

[Eleni · Rating 3 out of 5]

Chapter on Blake is not useful; chapters on Wordsworth and the Hunt Circle had some merit; most important chapter for my research was the one called "Unsex'd Females." Wish I had more time at present to read the earlier chapters on concepts and developments during the period rather than just ones on the poets.