English 364


Restoration and 18th-Century
       British Literature                                         

Fall 2016

Stephen Behrendt
319 Andrews; (402) 472-1806
Office: 1230- 230 MWF
and by appointment
sbehrendt1@unl.edu

             
              Rowlandson, The Exhibition Stare Case

Study Questions, Internet Resources, Materials for Further Study

General Resources

Chronology 1642-1820 This is a useful chronolgy of people and events in Restoration and 18th-century Britain, prepared by Alok Yadav at George Mason University. The general chronology is subdivided by period.

Luminarium  This is the Restoration and 18th-Century portion of the excellent website maintained by the W. W. Norton Co. There are good links here to people, places, and events from the period, although there are also rather a lot of commercial links and other distractions. Even so, the site features biographies of individual authors, notable quotations, bibliographical materials, and other usefiul study resources.

General Questions for the Study and Analysis of Novels   These questions will help you analyze matters of form and content. There are a lot of questions here; pick and choose among them to help you develop your skill at reading within a variety of contexts.

"The Voice of the Shuttle"  This is a great site for all areas of the Humanities, with links to authors, texts, bibliographical and other study materials. Click on this link to go directly to the portion of the site devoted to the Restoration and Eighteenth Century. Click on the title in quotation marks, above, to go to the main home page for The Voice of the Shuttle website.

"Eighteenth-Century Resources" An excellent starting-point for research on all aspects of British life, art, culture, politics, and economics; this extensive site was created by Jack Lynch at Rutgers University - Newark. The site has not been thoroughly maintained, so there are now many dead links, but it's worth browsing anyway.

Legal and Documentary Resources

The Proceedings of the Old Bailey, London, 1674-1835  This is just what it sounds like:  on-line transcriptions of court cases tried in London's famous central criminal court, the Old Bailey. There are records here of over 100,000 trials, with fascinating details about the lives and living conditions of ordinary Londoners during the century and a half covered in the archive.

Early Eighteenth-Century Newspaper Reports  These are transcriptions of actual newspaper stories from the early 18th century, with a convenient index organized by topic. Very interesting for browsing:  you will find everything from abandoned children, pickpockets, and popular entertainments to advice on fighting crime and how to get rid of bedbugs.

Early journals  This site contains electronic facsimile editions of some of the issues of early periodicals like the Annual Register (for 1758-1778), which offers an abundance of factual data about all aspects of life in England, and The Gentleman's Magazine (for 1731-1750), which was a popular sort of all-the-subjects reading material for the relatively well-to-do 18th-century gentleman.

Theatre-Related Resources

The Restoration Theatre. Some good background information, with links, on the Restoration theatre.

A good Cross-ref-it set of links focusing on Restoration theatre and its contexts.

And here is the Cross-ref-it companion site for 18th-century theatre and its contexts.

Another good interactive website on the Restoration drama in historical and cultural contexts.

A great multi-disciplinary webiste on the 18th-century British theatre in context, from the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

Here is an 18th-century theatre database with many links and resources for actors and actresses, theatres, tetxs, and much more.

Questions and Resources for Individual Works

Aphra Behn, Oroonoko

Henry Fielding, Joseph Andrews

William Wycherley, The Country Wife

Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The School for Scandal

Stephen Behrendt, Fall 2016