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Synopsis This is an impressive and lucid volume of eighteenth-century literature, providing a real sense of the complexity of the age and of the cultural and intellectual climate in which imaginative literature flourished. It reflects on some of the dominant themes of the period, arguing against such labels as 'Augustan age', 'Age of enlightenment' and 'Age of Reason,' which have been attached to the eighteenth-century by critics and historians. This book introduces the period and its discourse whilst redefining them, to give proper consideration to developments of themes, styles, concerns and contexts. The book offers succinct and analytical introductions to the work of authors. An excellent book, which will serve as a sound and lively introduction for students, and also will, makes and impressive and substantial contribution to scholarly study of the eighteenth-century literature.