The literary span from the Restoration (1660) to the end of the Romantic period (roughly 1837) represents one of the most dramatic shifts in human consciousness: the movement from the “Age of Reason” to the “Age of Feeling.”
This period tracks Britain’s evolution from a fractured nation recovering from civil war to a global empire grappling with the Industrial Revolution.
I. The Restoration (1660–1700)
Historical Context: After the austere Puritan rule of Oliver Cromwell and the Interregnum, the monarchy was restored in 1660 with Charles II. This brought a reaction against Puritanism, characterized by a return to hedonism, social sophistication, and the reopening of the theaters.
- Literary Characteristics:
- The Comedy of Manners: The defining genre of the era. These plays focused on the sexual intrigues, wit, and social hierarchies of the upper class (e.g., William Congreve, William Wycherley).
- The Return of Theater: For the first time, women were legally allowed to perform on the professional stage.
- Satires and Political Pamphlets: With the rise of the printing press, political warfare between the Whigs and Tories played out in print.
- Key Figure: John Dryden, who dominated the era as the first “Poet Laureate” and pioneered the use of the heroic couplet.
II. The Augustan Age / Neoclassicism (c. 1700–1745)
Historical Context: Named after the Roman Emperor Augustus, this era sought to emulate the stability and “perfection” of Classical Greece and Rome. It coincided with the Enlightenment, emphasizing logic, empirical evidence, and social order.
- Literary Characteristics:
- Order and Restraint: Literature was viewed as a craft governed by rules. Excess emotion was seen as “vulgar”; balance and decorum were the ideals.
- The Mock-Epic: Using the grand scale of Homeric epics to satirize trivial contemporary subjects.
- The Rise of the Periodical: The birth of the “essay” in magazines like The Spectator and The Tatler, aiming to “civilize” the growing middle class.
- Key Figures:
- Alexander Pope: The master of the heroic couplet (The Rape of the Lock).
- Jonathan Swift: The greatest satirist of the age, using irony to critique human nature and government (Gulliver’s Travels, A Modest Proposal).
III. The Age of Sensibility / The Age of Johnson (c. 1745–1798)
Historical Context: A transitional period. While Neoclassicism remained, there was a growing fatigue with strict rationalism. This era saw the birth of the modern novel and a shift toward “sensibility” (the capacity for deep emotion).
- Literary Characteristics:
- The Birth of the Novel: The shift from verse to prose. Writers began exploring the internal psychological lives of ordinary people.
- Moralism and Didacticism: A focus on virtue, social manners, and the domestic sphere.
- Pre-Romanticism: A growing interest in “primitive” nature and the “sublime” (the feeling of awe and terror in the face of nature).
- Key Figures:
- Samuel Johnson: A towering intellectual figure who wrote the first comprehensive Dictionary of the English Language.
- Novelists: Daniel Defoe (Robinson Crusoe), Samuel Richardson (Pamela), and Henry Fielding (Tom Jones).
IV. The Romantic Period (c. 1798–1837)
Historical Context: Triggered by two seismic events: the French Revolution (1789), which championed individual liberty, and the Industrial Revolution, which transformed the landscape from green fields to “dark satanic mills.”
- Literary Characteristics:
- Emotion over Reason: A rejection of the Neoclassical “rules.” The focus shifted to intuition, spontaneity, and the “overflow of powerful feelings.”
- The Glorification of Nature: Nature was no longer a “garden” to be ordered (as in the Augustan age), but a wild, spiritual force.
- The Individual (The Romantic Hero): A celebration of the outcast, the rebel, and the solitary dreamer.
- The Gothic: A fascination with the supernatural, ruins, and the macabre as a way to explore the subconscious.
- Key Figures:
- The First Generation: William Wordsworth and S.T. Coleridge, who launched the era with Lyrical Ballads (1798).
- The Second Generation: Lord Byron, P.B. Shelley, and John Keats, who leaned further into aestheticism and political rebellion.
- Mary Shelley: Who bridged the gap between Romanticism and the Gothic with Frankenstein.
Summary Table: The Great Shift
| Feature | Neoclassicism (Restoration → Augustan) | Romanticism |
|---|---|---|
| Core Value | Reason, Logic, Social Order | Emotion, Intuition, Individualism |
| View of Nature | A system of laws to be studied/tamed | A spiritual force to be experienced |
| Setting | The City, The Coffee House, The Court | The Wilderness, The Ruins, The Solitude |
| Goal of Art | To instruct and delight (Didactic) | To express the “Sublime” and the Self |
| Form | Strict (Heroic Couplets, Epics) | Fluid (Lyric Poetry, Free-form, Novels) |
| Humanity | Man as a social animal | Man as a spiritual/natural being |