Library: British Literature by Credo Reference: Early Modern Period

Elizabethan & Jacobean Periods

Elizabethan Literature
From Continuum Encyclopedia of British Literature
The principal characteristics of Elizabethan literature are its diversity and inventiveness, which were spread across not only the already traditional forms of poetry and drama, but the less securely established one of prose fiction.
Jacobean Era: Topic Page
Style in the arts, influential upon architecture and furniture as well as literature, during the reign of James I (1603-25) in England.
Jacobean Literature
From The Bloomsbury Dictionary of English Literature
Used to indicate the period of James I (1603-25) and applied especially to the literature and style of architecture of his reign.
Francis Bacon (1561 - 1626): Topic Page
English philosopher, politician, and writer, a founder of modern scientific research.
Ben Jonson (1572–1637): Topic Page
English dramatist and poet, born in Westminster, London.
Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593): Topic Page
English dramatist and poet, who established blank verse as a creative form of dramatic expression. His plays include Tamburlaine the Great (1590), Edward II (?1592), and Dr Faustus (1604). He was stabbed to death in a tavern brawl.
Thomas Middleton (1580-1627): Topic Page
English playwright whose comedies, written between 1604 and 1611, include A Trick to Catch the Old One and A Chaste Maid in Cheapside.

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616): Topic Page
English dramatist and poet, b. Stratford-on-Avon. He is widely considered the greatest playwright who ever lived.
Hamlet: Topic Page
A tragedy by William Shakespeare, first performed c. 1601.
Romeo & Juliet: Topic Page
A romantic tragedy by Shakespeare. It was published in quarto in a corrupt form in 1597, and in a better edition in 1599.

Mid Seventeenth Century

Restoration Literature
From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather guide
Prose, poetry, and drama written in English in Britain during the Restoration (the period when the monarchy, in the person of Charles II, was re-established after the English Civil War and the fall of the Protectorate in 1660).
John Bunyan (1628 -1688): Topic Page
English preacher and writer, noted particularly for his allegory The Pilgrim's Progress (1678).
John Dryden (1631 - 1700): Topic Page
English poet and dramatist. He is noted for his satirical verse and for his use of the heroic couplet.
John Evelyn (1620 - 1706): Topic Page
English writer whose Diary, published in 1818, is a valuable historical record of his times.
Thomas Hobbes (1588 - 1679): Topic Page
Hobbes was born at Westport (now a part of Malmesbury), Wiltshire on 5 April 1588. He died 4 December 1679 at Hardwick, Derbyshire.
John Locke (1632 - 1704): Topic Page
Locke was born on 29 August 1632 at Wrington, Somerset, into a Puritan family of the minor gentry.
John Milton (1608 - 1674): Topic Page
English poet. His early works, notably L'Allegro and Il Penseroso (1632), the masque Comus (1634), and the elegy Lycidas (1637), show the influence of his Christian humanist education and his love of Italian Renaissance poetry.
Samuel Pepys (1633 - 1703): Topic Page
English diarist and naval administrator. His diary, which covers the period 1660-69, is a vivid account of London life through such disasters as the Great Plague, the Fire of London, and the intrusion of the Dutch fleet up the Thames.

Eighteenth Century

Gothic Fiction
From Encyclopedia of the Romantic Era, 1760-1850
The term “Gothic fiction” refers to a literary form popular in the period between the publication of Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto in 1764 (the second edition was subtitled “A Gothic Story”) and Charles Maturin's Melmoth the Wanderer in 1820.
William Congreve (1670 - 1729): Topic Page
English dramatist, a major exponent of Restoration comedy; author of Love for Love (1695) and The Way of the World (1700).
Daniel Defoe (1660 - 1731): Topic Page
English novelist, journalist, spymaster, and pamphleteer, noted particularly for his novel Robinson Crusoe (1719). His other novels include Moll Flanders (1722) and A Journal of the Plague Year (1722).
Henry Fielding (1707 - 1754): Topic Page
English novelist and dramatist, noted particularly for his picaresque novel Tom Jones (1749) and for Joseph Andrews (1742), which starts as a parody of Richardson's Pamela: also noted as an enlightened magistrate and a founder of the Bow Street runners (1749).
Thomas Gray (1716 - 1771): Topic Page
British poet considered a forerunner of English romanticism. His most famous work is Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard (1751).
Alexander Pope (1688-1744): Topic Page
English poet, regarded as the most brilliant satirist of the Augustan period, especially with his Imitations of Horace (1733-38).
Samuel Richardson (1689 - 1761): Topic Page
English writer whose epistolary novels include Pamela (1740), often considered the first modern English novel, and Clarissa Harlowe (1747-1748).
Tobias Smollett (1721 - 1771): Topic Page
British writer known for his adventure novels, such as Roderick Random (1748) and Peregrine Pickle (1751).
Ann Radcliffe (1764 - 1823): Topic Page
British novelist, noted for her Gothic romances The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794) and The Italian (1797).
Samuel Richardson (1689 - 1761): Topic Page
English writer whose epistolary novels include Pamela (1740), often considered the first modern English novel, and Clarissa Harlowe (1747-1748).
Horace Walpole (1717 - 1797): Topic Page
British writer and historian whose correspondence and memoirs provide valuable information about his era. He wrote The Castle of Otranto (1764), considered the first Gothic novel in English.