I need literature suggestions: works set in OR written during the 18th century

[ereks mom]

I'm looking for American & European works in particular, and especially prose.

 

Here's what I have so far:

 

1712 -- Alexander Pope - The Rape of the Lock

1719 -- Daniel Defoe -- Robinson Crusoe (early novel)

1726 -- Jonathan Swift -- Gulliver's Travels (satire)

1740 -- Samuel Richardson -- Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded

1751 -- Thomas Gray -- Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard

-- Denis Diderot began his Encyclopédie.

1752 -- Voltaire РMicrom̩gas (satirical short story, early sci-fi)

1759 -- Voltaire – Candide

1761 -- Jean-Jacques Rousseau -- Julie, or the New Héloïse (French: Julie, ou la nouvelle Héloïse)

1764 -- Horace Walpole -- The Castle of Otranto (first gothic novel)

1766 -- Oliver Goldsmith -- The Vicar of Wakefield

1771 – Benjamin Franklin began his autobipgraphy.

1773 -- Oliver Goldsmith -- She Stoops to Conquer (farce)

1774 -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe --The Sorrows of Young Werther, a novel which approximately marks the beginning of the Romanticism movement in the arts and philosophy. A transition thus began, from the critical, science inspired, enlightenment writing to the romantic yearning for forces beyond the mundane and for foreign times and places to inspire the soul with passion and mystery.

1784 -- Beaumarchais --The Marriage of Figaro (adapted into a comic opera by Mozart in 1786)

1786 -- Robert Burns -- Poems Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect (a pioneer of the Romantic movement)

1787-1788 -- Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay – The Federalist, later known as The Federalist Papers (See also “Anti-Federalist”)

1789 -- William Hill Brown -- The Power of Sympathy: or, The Triumph of Nature (the first American novel)

1791 -- Charlotte Temple -- Susanna Rowson

 

We will probably read excerpts of most of these, rather than the complete works. What don't-miss books would you add? Which ones of the above would you skip?

Edited April 3, 2012 by ereks mom

[plansrme]

Last of the Mohicans was set in the mid-18th Century. It pales in comparison to what you have, but that's all I've got. And at least it has a movie tie-in, which is more than you can say for the Federalist Papers.

 

Terri

Edited April 3, 2012 by plansrme
typo

[ereks mom]

Last of the Mohicans was set in the mid-18th Century. It pales in comparison to what you have, but that's all I've got. And at least it has a movie tie-in, which is more than you can say for the Federalist Papers.

 

Terri

 

Thanks! That's a classic and I didn't even think of it! And yes, I'm not sure the Federalist Papers would make for an interesting movie... :tongue_smilie:

[Matryoshka]

Tale of Two Cities and Scarlet Pimpernel are set in the French Revolution, so around 1789.

[rwjx2khsmj]

Les Miserables by Victor Hugo would be another about the French Revolution.

Johnny Tremaine by Esther Forbes is set in Boston during the Revolutionary War.

 

We tried to read Gulliver's Travels but everyone agreed the first two books were all we could stand.

We are currently reading Robinson Crusoe. I had no idea how many years he spent on that island. It is interesting and we are more than half way through. We are all invested in finding out what happens next so we'll continue but if you can get a good condensed version, do it.

 

I read Les Miserables last summer. The story is AMAZING. However, Victor Hugo tells so much about every little thing in the story that it's hard to wade through the details to get to the action. This would be another good one for the condensed version. Although, knowing how to read that kind of literature is a good skill to have. Maybe a few chapters from the book, the condensed story line and then the musical would be a good compromise.

Edited April 3, 2012 by rwjx2khsmj

[MyThreeSons]

okay, I need more sleep. I was trying to think of works set in Oregon written during the 18th century. :D

[Sebastian (a lady)]

I think that The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle would fit as set in the period. Sleepy Hollow has a line about the older men in the community talking about "the war", which I think is the Revolution (though it could be French and Indian)

 

For a modern retelling, Jeff Shaara's Road to Rebellion and The Glorious Cause are quite well done. Road to Rebellion does a great job of illustrating that declaring independence wasn't at all a forgone conclusion.

 

Moll Flanders is another work by Defoe, but isn't one I'd particularly recommend, especially for a high school audience (and the movie had more nudity that I'd expected from a period drama).

 

Oh, and Swift also did "A Modest Proposal", which is a classic essay.

[Deniseibase]

You can probably skip The Castle of Otranto if you are looking for actual literature - it's historically interesting because it started a whole new genre, but it was popular fiction, not 'serious' literature. It's what Stephen King would have been writing if he had written then :D Still, it is a short read, and kinda fun, and I think the popular fiction of a time can give you a better sense of the people and mood of that time than more serious stuff.

 

Also, and I know you said you were looking for Western lit, but Dream of the Red Chamber is generally considered to be THE Chinese classic, equivalent to Shakespeare, and it came out of that time - it's fairly bawdy (no worse than Shakespeare) but I think it's worth reading a selection from it to give a student a taste of what's out there beyond the borders of the West.

[Deniseibase]

You can probably skip The Castle of Otranto if you are looking for actual literature - it's historically interesting because it started a whole new genre, but it was popular fiction, not 'serious' literature. It's what Stephen King would have been writing if he had written then :D Still, it is a short read, and kinda fun, and I think the popular fiction of a time can give you a better sense of the people and mood of that time than more serious stuff.

 

Also, and I know you said you were looking for Western lit, but Dream of the Red Chamber is generally considered to be THE Chinese classic, equivalent to Shakespeare, and it came out of that time - it's fairly bawdy (no worse than Shakespeare) but I think it's worth reading a selection from it to give a student a taste of what's out there beyond the borders of the West.

[ereks mom]

You can probably skip The Castle of Otranto if you are looking for actual literature - it's historically interesting because it started a whole new genre, but it was popular fiction, not 'serious' literature. It's what Stephen King would have been writing if he had written then :D Still, it is a short read, and kinda fun, and I think the popular fiction of a time can give you a better sense of the people and mood of that time than more serious stuff.

 

Also, and I know you said you were looking for Western lit, but Dream of the Red Chamber is generally considered to be THE Chinese classic, equivalent to Shakespeare, and it came out of that time - it's fairly bawdy (no worse than Shakespeare) but I think it's worth reading a selection from it to give a student a taste of what's out there beyond the borders of the West.

 

Thank you! I'm glad you mentioned this, because in a few weeks, we're going to do a unit on the Far East during the 18th century also. This will be great!

[ereks mom]

Tale of Two Cities and Scarlet Pimpernel are set in the French Revolution, so around 1789.

 

Thanks! We just finished a unit on the French Revolution, and we referenced these, but didn't have time to read them. We've seen the movies, though, and will probably watch them again. :D We LOVE Anthony Andrews as Percival Blakeney! ;)

[TippyCanoe]

.

Edited November 21, 2012 by Doodler

[Lori D.]

A few more ideas -- I didn't look closely at everyone's lists, so this may all be repeat, but here goes:

 

AMERICAN

- poems by Phyllis Wheatly -- poems written in 1770s-80s

- Rip Van Winkle (Irving) -- written around 1820; set in 1780s

- Legend of Sleepy Hollow (Irving) -- written around 1820; set in 1780s

- Last of the Mohicans (Cooper) -- written in 1826; set in 1757

- Deerslayer (Cooper) -- written in 1841; set in 1740-45

- PROSE: "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" sermon, 1741; Jonathon Edwards

- PROSE: Common Sense essay, 1776; Thomas Paine

- PROSE: Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)

- possibility: historical fiction account -- "Indian Captive: The Story of Mary Jemison" (Lenski) -- (1743–1833) she was an American frontierswoman and an adopted Seneca

 

 

NIGERIAN/AMERICAN/BRITISH

- PROSE: The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano (1745-1797) -- autobiographical account of his enslavement

 

 

UK

- Robinson Crusoe (Defoe) -- written in 1720

- Gulliver's Travels (Swift) -- written in 1726

- PROSE: A Modest Proposal (Swift) -- satirical essay; written in 1729

- PROSE: Reflections on the Revolution in France essay, 1790; Edmund Burke

- Treasure Island (Stevenson) -- written in 1883; set in 1700s

- A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens) -- written in 1859; set during 1790s

- a work by Samuel Johnson -- poems, articles, sermons, speeches

- poems by Alexander Pope

- poems by William Blake

- poems by Robert Burns

 

 

POLISH/BRITISH

- Scarlet Pimpernel (Orczy) -- written in 1905; set in 1789-early 1790s (French Revolution)

 

 

FRANCE

- One Thousand and One Nights -- early 1700s, Antoine Galland publishes first European translation

- Candide (Voltaire) -- a satire; Voltaire was a leader of the Enlightenment; I only got partway through this; I think you need a good annotated version to understand who is being satirized; otherwise it just starts getting long and one weird thing after another...

 

 

BRIDGING 18th/19th CENTURIES:

- William Wordsworth (1770 - 1850) -- British; poetry

- Kobayashi Nobuyki (Issa) (1763 - 1828) -- Japanese; Haiku poetry;

- William Blake (1757 - 1827) -- British; poetry

- Jane Austen (1775 - 1817) -- British; novels

 

 

NOTE -- NOT 18th CENTURY:

- Les Miserables (Hugo) -- written and set in the 1800s (set from 1815 and culminating in the 1832 June Rebellion -- NOT French Revolution of 1789)

- Faust (Goethe) -- part 1 written in 1700s; part 2 written in the 1800s; entire work finally published in 1800s

- Scarlet Letter (Hawthorne) -- written in 1850; set between 1642 to 1649

Edited April 4, 2012 by Lori D.

[Charles Wallace]

Last of the Mohicans was set in the mid-18th Century. It pales in comparison to what you have, but that's all I've got. And at least it has a movie tie-in, which is more than you can say for the Federalist Papers.

 

Terri

 

See, I would SO go to see a movie of The Federalist Papers if it had Johnny Depp.

 

 

 

 

Okay, now down to brass tacks.

 

Other works you may want to consider include the following. NOTE: Not all of these works are going to be appropriate for all families! Some contain adult scenes or content, and if so, I've marked them with an asterisk, meaning that you may want to preview them first.

 

Frances Burney, Evelina

Jane Austen was a major fan of Burney's, and it's easy to see how Burney definitely influenced Austen.

 

Samuel Pepys, The Diary of Samuel Pepys*

Fascinating, first-hand accounts of the Restoration, Plague, and Great Fire.

 

Choderlos de Laclos, Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Dangerous Liaisons)*

Delightful aristocratic snark and Machiavellian sexual politics. Not for the younger set.

 

Peter Shaffer, Amadeus (play and film)*

A compelling modern-day examination of the life of Mozart.

 

Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders*

A romp in every sense, but also not for the younger set.

 

Alexander Pope, "An Essay on Criticism"

Snarkly wonderful diss on crummy writing.

 

Jonathan Swift, "A Modest Proposal"*

A unique -- if rather questionable -- solution to the problem of poverty. Warning: NOT for the younger set. Oh, and don't be eating while you read this.

 

Jonathan Swift, "A Lady's Dressing-Room," "Description of a City Shower," etc.*****

PLEASE pre-read these for content. Don't say I didn't warn you. Funny, though!!

 

Addison and Steele, "The Spectator," especially Spectator #1, Spectator #10, and assorted others.

A master example of what you could call an 18th-century blog.

 

Hope this helps!!

[Charles Wallace]

You can probably skip The Castle of Otranto if you are looking for actual literature - it's historically interesting because it started a whole new genre, but it was popular fiction, not 'serious' literature. It's what Stephen King would have been writing if he had written then :D Still, it is a short read, and kinda fun, and I think the popular fiction of a time can give you a better sense of the people and mood of that time than more serious stuff.

 

.

I think of it as Stephenie Meyer for the corset and farthingale set. By the way, Jane Austen skewers these books -- and their fangirls -- so wonderfully in Northanger Abbey. She has a scene in which two fangirls are raving about the latest Stephenie Meyer novel of that day that I remember as something along the lines of,

 

"OMGOMGOMG, I just LOVE The Mysteries of Udolpho!"

"OMG!! I do too! That is SUCH a coincidence! I am SOOO 'Team Valancourt'!"

"I so wanna be Team Valancourt, but what the heck -- I'll be 'Team Montoni!' In several hundred years, I'll be rooting for Professor Snape!"

Edited April 4, 2012 by Charles Wallace

[ereks mom]

I think of it as Stephenie Meyer for the corset and farthingale set. By the way, Jane Austen skewers these books -- and their fangirls -- so wonderfully in Northanger Abbey. She has a scene in which two fangirls are raving about the latest Stephenie Meyer novel of that day that I remember as something along the lines of,

 

"OMGOMGOMG, I just LOVE The Mysteries of Udolpho!"

"OMG!! I do too! That is SUCH a coincidence! I am SOOO 'Team Valancourt'!"

"I so wanna be Team Valancourt, but what the heck -- I'll be 'Team Montoni!' In several hundred years, I'll be rooting for Professor Snape!"

 

:D

[ereks mom]

Thank you, LoriD! I'm so glad you chimed in! I always appreciate your comments in literature threads, and I have saved SO MANY of your previous posts. :)

[ereks mom]

:grouphug: Many, many thanks to all of you who responded!

[Carol in Cal.]

I'm looking for American & European works in particular, and especially prose.

 

Here's what I have so far:

 

1712 -- Alexander Pope - The Rape of the Lock

1719 -- Daniel Defoe -- Robinson Crusoe (early novel)

1726 -- Jonathan Swift -- Gulliver's Travels (satire)

1740 -- Samuel Richardson -- Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded

1751 -- Thomas Gray -- Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard

-- Denis Diderot began his Encyclopédie.

1752 -- Voltaire – Micromégas (satirical short story, early sci-fi)

1759 -- Voltaire – Candide

1761 -- Jean-Jacques Rousseau -- Julie, or the New Héloïse (French: Julie, ou la nouvelle Héloïse)

1764 -- Horace Walpole -- The Castle of Otranto (first gothic novel)

1766 -- Oliver Goldsmith -- The Vicar of Wakefield

1771 – Benjamin Franklin began his autobipgraphy.

1773 -- Oliver Goldsmith -- She Stoops to Conquer (farce)

1774 -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe --The Sorrows of Young Werther, a novel which approximately marks the beginning of the Romanticism movement in the arts and philosophy. A transition thus began, from the critical, science inspired, enlightenment writing to the romantic yearning for forces beyond the mundane and for foreign times and places to inspire the soul with passion and mystery.

1784 -- Beaumarchais --The Marriage of Figaro (adapted into a comic opera by Mozart in 1786)

1786 -- Robert Burns -- Poems Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect (a pioneer of the Romantic movement)

1787-1788 -- Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay – The Federalist, later known as The Federalist Papers (See also “Anti-Federalistâ€)

1789 -- William Hill Brown -- The Power of Sympathy: or, The Triumph of Nature (the first American novel)

1791 -- Charlotte Temple -- Susanna Rowson

 

We will probably read excerpts of most of these, rather than the complete works. What don't-miss books would you add? Which ones of the above would you skip?

 

A Vindication of the Rights of Women--1792 by Mary Wollstonecraft, mother of Mary Shelley (who wrote Frankenstein)

The Scarlett Letter--1850 by Nathaniel Hawthorne, about Puritan New England (written later but of that earlier time)

Perhaps Benjamin Franklin's autobiography

The founding documents of the United States--Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, and Constitution

[Lori D.]

You are welcome! I tried to keep it to works that might be interesting, relevant, and actually DO-able for a high schooler. And works that really were considered classics -- although, I would classify James Fenimore Cooper's novels as the historical fiction of his day, not a classic, as they lack the depth of theme, quality of writing, and character development of a classic such as Tale of Two Cities; JMO!

 

Also, I would NOT put the autobiography of Equiano and the young adult historical fiction/biography of Mary Jemison in the classic category; I only threw them on the list as I did think they were more along the prose line that you were asking for, and that a high school student might find them of interest...

 

There are a number of authors who were *just* getting started in writing/publishing at the very end of the 18th century/start of 19th century, so I included them as well. Once you get into the 19th century, the list expands tremendously, and you get a LOT more European and American works considered classics at that point.

 

Happy reading! :) Warmest regards, Lori D.