“Revolution was the great nightmare of eighteenth-century British society, and when first the American Revolution of 1776, then the French Revolution of… — Ronald Carter Copy Share Image
“Richardson, however, remains a vital figure in the history of the novel, and of ideology. He initiates a discourse on sexual roles… — Ronald Carter Copy Share Image
“The language of Shakespeare is the first and lasting affirmation of the great changes that took place in the sixteenth century, leaving… — Ronald Carter Copy Share Image
“Writers in what we now call the Middle English period (late twelfth century to 1485) did not necessarily always write in English.… — Ronald Carter Copy Share Image
“Christian monks and nuns were, in effect, the guardians of culture, as they were virtually the only people who could read and… — Ronald Carter Copy Share Image
“Chaucer's world in The Canterbury Tales brings together, for the first time, a diversity of characters, social levels, attitudes, and ways of… — Ronald Carter Copy Share Image
“The concept of an author, the single creative person who gives the text 'authority', only comes later in this period. Most Old… — Ronald Carter Copy Share Image
“Few poets better convey the uneasy transition from Victorianism to Modernism than Thomas Hardy. His novels, written between 1870 and 1895, made… — Ronald Carter Copy Share Image
“There is a vast expanse of time before the Norman Conquest in 1066, from which fragments of literary texts remain, although these… — Ronald Carter Copy Share Image
“John Milton has, since his own lifetime, always been one of the major figures in English literature, but his reputation has changed… — Ronald Carter Copy Share Image
“All Renaissance drama, especially the works of Marlowe and Shakespeare, is profoundly concerned with shifting power relations within society. The individual was… — Ronald Carter Copy Share Image
“At the end of the 1400s, the world changed. Two key dates can mark the beginning of modern times. In 1485, the… — Ronald Carter Copy Share Image
“The beliefs and behaviour of the Restoration reflect the theories of society put forward by Thomas Hobbes in The Leviathan, which was… — Ronald Carter Copy Share Image
“It is the voice of everyday people, rather than of a self-conscious 'artist', that we hear in Caedmon's Hymn, and in such… — Ronald Carter Copy Share Image
“The novels of Daniel Defoe are fundamental to eighteenth-century ways of thinking. They range from the quasi-factual A Journal of the Plague… — Ronald Carter Copy Share Image
“Pearl introduces an original story, in a form which was to become one of the most frequent in mediaeval literature, the dream-vision.… — Ronald Carter Copy Share Image
“Henry Fielding, a highly successful satiric dramatist until the introduction of censorship in 1737, began his novel-writing career with Shamela, a pastiche… — Ronald Carter Copy Share Image
“Milton argued, in 1649, after the execution of Charles I, that a people 'free by nature' had a right to overthrow a… — Ronald Carter Copy Share Image
“In the eighteenth century, the Scottish Enlightenment focused attention on Glasgow and Edinburgh as centres of intellectual activity. The Scottish Enlightenment was… — Ronald Carter Copy Share Image
“Literature before the Renaissance had frequently offered ideal patterns for living which were dominated by the ethos of the church, but after… — Ronald Carter Copy Share Image
“In terms of literary history, the publication of Lyrical Ballads in 1798 is seen as a landmark. The volume contains many of… — Ronald Carter Copy Share Image
“THE METAPHYSICAL POETS Had we but world enough, and time, This coyness, lady, were no crime (Andrew Marvell, To His Coy Mistress)… — Ronald Carter Copy Share Image
“The character and the play of Hamlet are central to any discussion of Shakespeare's work. Hamlet has been described as melancholic and… — Ronald Carter Copy Share Image
“Alongside the development of theatres came the growth of an acting culture; in essence it was the birth of the acting profession.… — Ronald Carter Copy Share Image
“Old English poetry also contained a wide range of conventional poetic diction, many of the words being created to allow alliterative patterns… — Ronald Carter Copy Share Image
“Johnson's later life, from 1763, is among the best documented of all literary lives. James Boswell gave himself the enormous task, after… — Ronald Carter Copy Share Image
“In the humanist world following Erasmus, man is at the centre of the universe. Man becomes largely responsible for his own destiny,… — Ronald Carter Copy Share Image
“One of the first books of travel, giving European readers some insight into the unfamiliar world of the Orient, was published in… — Ronald Carter Copy Share Image
“In the eighteenth century, with the growth of publishing and with the intellectual climate of the Enlightenment, there was a great demand… — Ronald Carter Copy Share Image
“Old English poetry is characterised by a number of poetic tropes which enable a writer to describe things indirectly and which require… — Ronald Carter Copy Share Image
“The range and variety of Chaucer's English did much to establish English as a national language. Chaucer also contributed much to the… — Ronald Carter Copy Share Image
“Two literary figures bridge the gap between the mediaeval age and the Renaissance. They are Sir Thomas Malory, the author of Le… — Ronald Carter Copy Share Image
“Dryden was a highly prolific literary figure, a professional writer who was at the centre of all the greatest debates of his… — Ronald Carter Copy Share Image
“The Restoration did not so much restore as replace. In restoring the monarchy with King Charles II, it replaced Cromwell's Commonwealth and… — Ronald Carter Copy Share Image
“Shakespeare's plays do not present easy solutions. The audience has to decide for itself. King Lear is perhaps the most disturbing in… — Ronald Carter Copy Share Image
“The Romantic journey was usually a solitary one. Although the Romantic poets were closely connected with one another, and some collaborated in… — Ronald Carter Copy Share Image
“The fairy or fantastic world replaces the classical Hades (or Hell) in Sir Orfeo, and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight takes… — Ronald Carter Copy Share Image
“As a novelist, Scott's influence was immense: his creation of a wide range of characters from all levels of society was immediately… — Ronald Carter Copy Share Image
“Later, Hobbes will stress the notion central to Augustan thinking, the binary of passion and reason: The Passions that encline men to… — Ronald Carter Copy Share Image
“Beowulf stands out as a poem which makes extensive use of this kind of figurative language. There are over one thousand compounds… — Ronald Carter Copy Share Image
“Milton argued, in 1649, after the execution of Charles I, that a people 'free by nature' had a right to overthrow a tyrant; a… — Ronald Carter Copy Share Image
“Johnson's later life, from 1763, is among the best documented of all literary lives. James Boswell gave himself the enormous task, after Johnson's death… — Ronald Carter Copy Share Image
“SHAKESPEARE What is a man, If his chief good and market of his time Be but to sleep and feed? A beast, no more… — Ronald Carter Copy Share Image
“THE METAPHYSICAL POETS Had we but world enough, and time, This coyness, lady, were no crime (Andrew Marvell, To His Coy Mistress) While theatre… — Ronald Carter Copy Share Image
“Two literary figures bridge the gap between the mediaeval age and the Renaissance. They are Sir Thomas Malory, the author of Le Morte D'Arthur,… — Ronald Carter Copy Share Image
“One of the first books of travel, giving European readers some insight into the unfamiliar world of the Orient, was published in 1356-67 in… — Ronald Carter Copy Share Image
“Shakespeare's plays do not present easy solutions. The audience has to decide for itself. King Lear is perhaps the most disturbing in this respect.… — Ronald Carter Copy Share Image
“The language of Shakespeare is the first and lasting affirmation of the great changes that took place in the sixteenth century, leaving the Middle… — Ronald Carter Copy Share Image
“Chaucer's world in The Canterbury Tales brings together, for the first time, a diversity of characters, social levels, attitudes, and ways of life. The… — Ronald Carter Copy Share Image
“The beliefs and behaviour of the Restoration reflect the theories of society put forward by Thomas Hobbes in The Leviathan, which was written in… — Ronald Carter Copy Share Image
“In the humanist world following Erasmus, man is at the centre of the universe. Man becomes largely responsible for his own destiny, behaviour and… — Ronald Carter Copy Share Image
“Few poets better convey the uneasy transition from Victorianism to Modernism than Thomas Hardy. His novels, written between 1870 and 1895, made him not… — Ronald Carter Copy Share Image
