About Eighteenth-Century Fiction
Contents
Eighteenth-Century Fiction brings together 96 complete works of English prose
from the period 1700–1780 by writers from the British Isles. It is the largest
collection of literature from the period available in electronic form.
The eighteenth century saw an enormous increase in the production and publication
of prose narratives. It was a period of great creative experiment as the structure
and conventions of what would be termed the novel were shaped and developed.
Eighteenth-Century Fiction offers students and researchers access to this dynamic
period of English literary history. It not only represents all the major writers
associated with the 'rise of the novel' - Daniel Defoe, Henry Fielding, Samuel
Richardson, Tobias Smollett, and Laurence Sterne - but also many less well-known,
but equally vital and significant figures, such as Penelope Aubin, Richard Graves,
Charles Johnstone, Mary de la Rivière Manley and Sarah Scott.
Key areas covered include:
- Epistolary novels, such as Samuel Richardson's Pamela (1740) and
Clarissa (1748), Tobias Smollett's Humphry Clinker (1771) and Fanny Burney's
Evelina (1778)
- Novels of sentiment, ranging from Laurence Sterne's A Sentimental
Journey (1768) to Henry Brooke's The Fool of Quality (1765–70) and Henry Mackenzie's
The Man of Feeling (1771), as well as works by Frances Brooke, Charlotte Lennox
and Frances Sheridan
- Documentary fictions, including Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe (1719)
and A Journal of the Plague Year (1722)
- Allegorical narratives and satires, for example Mary de la Rivière
Manley's The New Atalantis (1709), Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels (1726
and 1735 editions), Francis Coventry's The History of Pompey the Little (1751),
Samuel Johnson's Rasselas (1759), Richard Graves, The Spiritual Quixote (1773)
- Gothic novels, particularly Clara Reeve's The Old English Baron (1780)
and Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto (1764)
Editorial Policy
The authors and works were selected under the guidance of the Editorial Board
to meet the needs of academic teaching and research, and provide a representative
and cross-sectional view of the prose fiction of the period.
Editorial Board
Dr Judith Hawley, Royal Holloway, University of London
Dr Tom Keymer, St Anne's College, University of Oxford
Dr John Mullan, University College London
'Not a substitute for reading and thinking, but a tool to support imaginative
analysis and sophisticated research, this database will be an invaluable resource
for work in libraries and classrooms' - Dr Judith Hawley Royal Holloway, University
of London
'[Eighteenth-Century Fiction] will allow the researcher to trace patterns of
diction and allusion within individual texts, or the works of a particular author.
With electronic access to the language of novels, we will be able to explore
the influence of novels on our language' - Dr John Mullan, University College
London
Editions
A single edition of each work, usually the first, has been included. A few
works, such as Clarissa, have been reproduced twice in different editions, to
take account of extensive authorial revisions. The second edition of Tristram
Shandy is included in both scanned page-image form and fully-searchable text
in order to reflect its wide range of visual innovations.
Texts
The entire text of each individual work has been included, with all prefatory
matter and annotation by the original author. All accompanying material, such
as illustrations, contents pages, appendices, lists of subscribers, dedications,
errata lists, etc. also appears. Only material having no bearing on the work
in question or its author (such as a publisher's advertisements for other texts)
has been excluded.
