The English novel in the eighteenth century

UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
Carter Delafield (Creator)
Institution
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/
Advisor
Arthur Dixon

Abstract: In the chapter called "The Romantic Reaction" in Science and the Modern World. Alfred North Whitehead observes, It is in literature that the concrete outlook of humanity receives its expression. Accordingly, it is to literature that we must look particularly in its more concrete forms, . . . . if we hope to discover the inward thoughts of a generation.1 The Eighteenth Century's outlook was very different from our own, but its "inward thoughts" have a particular relevance for us today. The century introduced the industrialism which has shaped the West, and its political philosophy was an important influence on the American revolutionists, particularly Thomas Jefferson. But its ideas differ so vastly from ours that the form of our civilization seems to rest on thought systems we now appear to doubt. It is possible that a study of the Eighteenth Century, using its literature as original source material, will lead not only to an appreciation of the period itself, but toward a discovery of its influences on its future and our past. Knowing something of its thoughts may help us to know ourselves in the making, to illuminate some of the dark and cluttered corners of our own confusion.

Additional Information

Publication
Honors Project
Language: English
Date: 1964

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