Historical Literatures: Writing About the Past in England, 16601740

(Paperback)

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Newly available in paperback, Historical literatures recovers a rich, vibrant and complex tradition of Restoration and early eighteenth century English historical writing. Highlighting the wide variety of historical works being printed and read in England between the years 1660 and 1740, it demonstrates that many of the genres that we now view primarily as literary - verse satire and panegyric, memoir, scandal and chronicle - were also being used to represent historical phenomena. In surveying some of this period's 'historical literatures', it argues that many satirists, secret historians and memoirists made their choice of historical subject matter a topic of explicit commentary, presenting themselves as historians or inscribing their works in an English historical tradition. By responding to other varieties of history in this self-conscious way, writers like Andrew Marvell, John Dryden, Delarivier Manley, Daniel Defoe and John Evelyn were able to pioneer influential new techniques for representing their nation's past. -- .

Reviews

devoted to the theme of the intricate relation of history to the novel
Jonathan Lamb, SEL: Studies in English Literature 1500-1900, 31/10/2013|Gallaghers thoughtful and well-written book succeeds admirably in depicting the broad spectrum of historical literatures.
, R.C. Richardson, University of Winchester, The Spenser Review, Book Review, 2012

Author Bio

Noelle Gallagher is Lecturer in Eighteenth-Century British Literature at the University of Manchester.