Writing in the 18th Century

The world of writing in the eighteenth century was a world in flux, a time of transition when the nature of writers, writing, publishing and reading changed beyond recognition over the course of a century. Like all big changes, it prompted innovation, and excitement – but its flipside was the kind of hostility and fear of the new that we see in Alexander Pope’s attack on modern writing in his satirical poem The Dunciad (1728-1743). Some of the biggest changes to occur in this period are things that we now take for granted. This makes it hard in some ways to see what all the fuss was about. We take it for granted that being an author is a perfectly respectable profession, that writers should be paid for what they produce. We don’t question the fact or appropriateness of women writers and readers. Novels are now the dominant genre in literary publishing – we have prestigious prizes for literary fiction. Yet in the period between 1700-1830, all these ideas were new, and were being furiously debated by a whole range of writers and readers. Read more