LibGuides: Neoclassical &amp; Enlightenment World Literature: Books & eBooks

Featured eBooks

Go to A-Z Databases: eBooks to search for more eBooks.

Want more on finding books or eBooks? Try our How to Use Books & eBooks guides.

The Blackwell Guide to Kant's Ethics Through a collection of new, previously unpublished essays,The Blackwell Guide to Kant's Ethics addressesdiverse topics crucial to our understanding of Kant's moralphilosophy and its implications for the modern age. Provides a fresh perspective on themes in Kant's moralphilosophy Addresses systematically Kant's foundational work,Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals and his morespecific treatment of justice and virtue in The Metaphysics ofMorals Includes essays by both established scholars and risingstars Identifies common misperceptions of Kant's thought andchallenges some prevailing interpretations Shows how Kant developed and supplemented his earlier ethicalthought with specific discussions of practical issues in law,international relations, personal relations, and self-regardingvirtues and vices
Called to Civil Existence : Mary Wollstonecraft's a Vindication of the Rights of Woman Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), a continuation of her earlier Vindication of the Rights of Men (1790), was the first feminist treatise to emerge within a broader context of liberationist human rights theory. Rights of Woman remains, however, relevant and instructive. The essays included here show that Wollstonecraft's legacy is still with us today as the balancing act between a society where sexual distinction translates into gender prejudice and a utopian order where sexual difference ceases to be a structuring element of social, economic and political bias. Engaging Wollstonecraft's famous argument from a variety of critical perspectives, a range of contemporary scholars offer new trajectories in this volume for the study of Wollstonecraft's historic work and its relevance to our time.
The Complete Critical Guide to Alexander Pope So many questions surround the key figures in the English literary canon, but most books focus on one aspect of an author's life or work, or limit themselves to a single critical approach. Alexander Pope is a comprehensive, user-friendly guide which: * offers information on Pope's life, contexts and works * outline the major critical issues surrounding his works, from the time they were written to the present *explains the full range of different critical views and interpretations * offers guides to further reading in each area discussed.
Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz : The Concept of Substance in Seventeenth Century Metaphysics This book introduces student to the three major figures of modern philosophy known as the rationalists. It is not for complete beginners, but it is an accessible account of their thought. By concerning itself with metaphysics, and in particular substance, the book relates an important historical debate largely neglected by the contemporary debates in the once again popular area of traditional metaphysics. in philosophy. (Do Not USE)
The Eighteenth Century English Novel A comprehensive view of the major literary movements in Western history- An introduction by Harold Bloom and a selection of critical essays provides scholarly analysis on the major writers and works that defined each literary period- Features a chronology of important cultural, literary, and political events that helped shape each literary period
Equivocal Beings : Politics, Gender, and Sentimentality in the 1790s--Wollstonecraft, Radcliffe, Burney, Austen In the wake of the French Revolution, Edmund Burke argued that civil order depended upon nurturing the sensibility of menOCoupon the masculine cultivation of traditionally feminine qualities such as sentiment, tenderness, veneration, awe, gratitude, and even prejudice. Writers as diverse as Sterne, Goldsmith, Burke, and Rousseau were politically motivated to represent authority figures as men of feeling, but denied women comparable authority by representing their feelings as inferior, pathological, or criminal. Focusing on Mary Wollstonecraft, Ann Radcliffe, Frances Burney, and Jane Austen, whose popular works culminate and assail this tradition, Claudia L. Johnson examines the legacy male sentimentality left for women of various political persuasions. Demonstrating the interrelationships among politics, gender, and feeling in the fiction of this period, Johnson provides detailed readings of Wollstonecraft, Radcliffe, and Burney, and treats the qualities that were once thought to mar their workOCogrotesqueness, strain, and excessOCoas indices of ideological conflict and as strategies of representation during a period of profound political conflict. She maintains that the reactionary reassertion of male sentimentality as a political duty displaced customary gender roles, rendering women, in Wollstonecraft''s words, equivocal beings."
Erasmus and Voltaire: Why They Still Matter Despite comparisons between Erasmus and Voltaire having become common-place in the course of the nineteenth century, this is the first full study to bring them together in their careers, their works, and their historic afterlives. Each was a force for change in his time and thus ranks among the masters of modern liberalism. Beginning with the continuities between the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, award-winning scholar Ricardo J. Quinones joins Erasmus and Voltaire as voices of moderation and reason that remain capable of addressing the philosophical crises of twentieth-century thought. A companion piece to Dualisms, Quinones' 2007 book, Erasmus and Voltaire differs in method: where its predecessor looked to inveterate, unyielding differences, this new work looks to similarities. In delving beneath the obvious differences between these two intellectual giants, Quinones uncovers the great practical and spiritual vocations that unite them.
Jonathan Swift in the Company of Women Jonathan Swift was the subject of gossip and criticism in his own time concerning his relations with women and his representations of them in his writings. For over twenty years he regarded Esther Johnson, "Stella," as "his most valuable friend," yet he is reputed never to have seen her alone. From his time to our own there has been speculation that the two were secretly married--since their relationship seemed so inexplicable then and now. For thirteen of the years that Swift seemed committed to Stella as the acknowledged woman in his life, he maintained a clandestine--but apparentlyalso nonsexual--relationship with another woman, Esther Van Homrigh, or "Vanessa." Jonathan Swift in the Company of Women looks again at these much-examined relationships and at others that reveal Swift as a man who enjoyed the company of a number of women as pupils and as ministrants to his variousneeds. Swift, a man with a complex private life, was also a writer whose satiric portraits of women could be unsparing. While Swift often criticized women for frivolous pastimes and idle chatter, his most notorious texts on women image their bodies as loathsome: as he once wrote in a serious politicaltract, a woman is a "nauseous, unwholesome carcass." Such representations cross a line by showing a repugnance for women as a sex, the biological other. They have led, not surprisingly, to repeated charges of misogyny, an issue that Jonathan Swift in the Company of Women addresses at some length.This first book-length treatment of Swift and women comprehensively examines Swift's attitude toward women in all their manifestations in his work and life: as intimates, acquaintances, proteges, wives, mothers, nurses, disobedient daughters, young women who marry older men, and--finally--as poetsand critics.
Of Love and War : The Political Voice in the Early Plays of Aphra Behn Of Love and War: The Political Voice in the Early Plays of Aphra Behn is a study which situates Behn's early plays within their historical and political context. Behn (c.1640-1689), the first professional female playwright in England, is a fascinating study, having traveled to Surinam as a young woman, served as a spy for Charles II, and evidently supported her family through her writing, including plays, poetry, fiction, and translation. Her early plays have often been dismissed as romances, largely because they treat such social and/or gender issues as forced marriage and female desire. This study argues that these same social issues frequently serve as tropes for political commentary and propaganda in support of foreign and domestic policies. Behn's plays clearly demonstrate staunch loyalist support of the Stuart government, yet within the dramatic construction, she--like her contemporary male colleagues, offers fascinating covert political criticism.
The Public Mirror : Moliere and the Social Commerce of Depiction Though much beloved and widely produced, Moli#65533;re's satirical comedies pose a problem for those reading or staging his works today: how can a genre associated with biting caricature and castigation deliver engaging theater? Instead of simply dismissing social satire as a foundation for Moli#65533;re's theater, as many have done, Larry F. Norman takes seriously Moli#65533;re's claim that his satires are first and foremost effective theater. Pairing close readings of Moli#65533;re's comedies with insightful accounts of French social history and aesthetics, Norman shows how Moli#65533;re conceived of satire as a "public mirror" provoking dynamic exchange and conflict with audience members obsessed with their own images. Drawing on these tensions, Moli#65533;re portrays characters satirizing one another on stage, with their reactions providing dramatic conflict and propelling comic dialogue. By laying bare his society's system of imagining itself, Moli#65533;re's satires both enthralled and enraged his original audience and provide us with a crucial key to the classical culture of representation.
Rousseau : A Very Short Introduction 'Review from previous edition Dr Wokler is... in command of a vast store of information on this author.' -The Times Literary Supplement
Swift's Landscape An argument for a re-evaluation of Jonathan Swift's place in 18th-century literary history. Combining history, biography and literary criticism, it sets out to restore his life and writing to their proper landscape, by emphasising the influence on Swift of his Irish involvements and environs.

Featured Print Books

Go to OneSearch to search for more print books.

Want more on finding print books? Try our How to Use OneSearch guide.

Alexander Pope: The Poet in the Poems What is the precise relation between the "Pope" of the poems and the Pope of history? Seeking to clarify the nature of the intimate link between the historical self and the idealized self of the poetry, Dustin Griffin examines the various ways in which Pope's poems may be said to be self-expressive. He brings a sensitive critical reading of the texts and an impressive knowledge of the poet's life and writings to his discussion of poems from the entire range of the poet's career.
The Cambridge Companion to Jonathan Swift In addition to ensuring broad coverage of Jonathan Swift's writing by including early, as well as more well-known later works, this Companion offers access to current critical and theoretical issues concerning the author. Special emphasis is placed on Swift's problematic relationship with the land of his birth, Ireland, and on his place as a political writer in a highly politicized age.
The Cambridge Companion to Molière A detailed introduction to Molière and his plays, this Companion evokes his own theatrical career, his theatres, patrons, the performers and theatre staff with whom he worked, and the various publics he and his troupes entertained with such success. It looks at his particular brands of comedy and satire. L'École des femmes, Le Tartuffe, Dom Juan, Le Misanthrope, L'Avare and Les Femmes savantes are examined from a variety of different viewpoints, and through the eyes of different ages and cultures. The comedies-ballets, a genre invented by Molière and his collaborators, are re-instated to the central position which they held in his oeuvre in Molière's own lifetime; his two masterpieces in this genre, Le Bourgeois gentilhomme and Le Malade imaginaire, have chapters to themselves. Finally, the Companion looks at modern directors' theatre, exploring the central role played by productions of his work in successive 'revolutions' in the dramatic arts in France.
Critical Companion to Jonathan Swift : A Literary Reference to His Life and Works Best known as the author of ""Gulliver's Travels"", Jonathan Swift is one of literature's great satirists. Born and educated in Ireland, Swift became a politician and clergyman in England, where he wrote essays, pamphlets, poems, and fiction that addressed the political issues and social conditions of his time. In ""Gulliver's Travels"", he introduced the allegorical settings of Lilliput, Brobdingnag, Laputa, and the island of the Houyhnhnms, as well as the term ""Yahoos,"" in a playful but dark satirical reflection on mankind. His other works include ""A Modest Proposal"", ""A Tale of a Tub"", ""The Battle of the Books"", ""Journal to Stella"", and ""Drapier's Letters"", among others. ""Critical Companion to Jonathan Swift"" contains extensive analyses of all Swift's major works. This accessible volume also examines his influences, including family, friends, relatives, and acquaintances, as well as important places where he lived and worked. In this single-volume reference, admirers, general readers, and lovers of literature will discover hundreds of entries covering every aspect of Swift's life and work. Additional features include a chronology of Swift's life and bibliographies of primary and secondary sources. This volume will guide readers through Swift's fascinating life and work and illuminate his often bitter but brilliant reflections on humankind. Coverage includes: a concise, but thorough biography of Swift; entries on all Swift's major and minor works, with extensive commentary on the major works, including ""Gulliver's Travels"", ""A Modest Proposal"", ""A Tale of a Tub"", ""The Battle of the Books"", ""Journal to Stella"", ""Drapier's Letters"", and many more; entries on people important to Swift, including his friends, relatives, associates, and critics; and examinations of the major intellectual, religious, political, and literary influences on Swift, topics and themes in his work, and more.
Gulliver's Travels : complete, authoritative text with biographical and historical contexts, critical history, and essays from five contemporary critical perspectives This work includes the complete authoritative text with biographical & historical contexts, critical history and essays from five contemporary critical perspectives.
Gulliver's Travels : The Politics of Satire Written in an easy-to-read, accessible style by teachers with years of classroom experience, Masterwork Studies are guides to the literary works most frequently studied in high school. Presenting ideas that spark imaginations, these books help students to gain background knowledge on great literature useful for papers and exams. The goal of each study is to encourage creative thinking by presenting engaging information about each work and its author. This approach allows students to arrive at sound analyses of their own, based on in-depth studies of popular literature. Each volume: -- Illuminates themes and concepts of a classic text -- Uses clear, conversational language -- Is an accessible, manageable length from 140 to 170 pages -- Includes a chronology of the author's life and era -- Provides an overview of the historical context -- Offers a summary of its critical reception -- Lists primary and secondary sources and index
Voltaire : A Very Short Introduction Voltaire (1694-1778), best remembered as the author of Candide, is one of the central actors - arguably the defining personality - of the European Enlightenment. In this Very Short Introduction, Nicholas Cronk explores Voltaire's remarkable career and demonstrates how his thinking is pivotalto our notion and understanding of the Enlightenment. In a fresh and modern examination of his writings, Cronk examines the nature of Voltaire's literary celebrity, demonstrating the extent to which his work was reactive and practical, and therefore made sense within the broader context of the debates to which he responded. The most famous livingauthor in Europe in the 18th century, Cronk emphasises Voltaire's skills of 'performance' as a writer and his continued relevance today. He concludes by looking not only at Voltaire's impact in literature and philosophy, but also his influence on French political values and modern French politics. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, andenthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Featured Historical Context

Understanding what life was like when a work was written can help you understand the meaning of the work.

Defining Documents in World History: The 18th Century Each in-depth chapter guides readers with historical insight and comprehension. From the Enlightenment to the advent of revolutionary movements around the world toward the end of the century, these volumes provide thoughtful analysis of documents and speeches allowing readers to gain a better understanding of the currents running through the history of the eighteenth century. An important resource for the history collections of high schools, undergraduate libraries and public libraries.
Great Events from History: The Eighteenth Century The events covered in this twovolume set include the important geopolitical events of the era-from the War of the Spanish Succession through the American and French Revolutions.