The Eighteenth Century : The Intellectual and Cultural Context of English Literature 1700-1789 (Longman Literature in English Series) (2ND)

This is an impressive and lucid survey of eighteenth-century intellectual life. 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.