European Literature- 17th and 18th Centuries

Grace Phelps, Katherine Feehan, Lizzy Steinborn,

and Stephanie Marrie

JOHN MILTON

PARADISE LOST

Miguel de Cervantes

-Highly associated with the expansion of Spanish

Literature

-Produced one of Europe’s first novels.

-Exerted a profound influence on European literature

-Widely known for its satire of existing tales of chivalry

and 'mischief'

Background

Born to a poor family in 1547 in Madrid, Spain.

Not much is known about his early life but was often

imprisoned about his debts.

Joined the army but was captured by pirates. Tried to escape

several times but was finally released after five years.

In 1584 he married Isabel de Saavedra and started writing.

His Writings Human Nature

• "It is so conspicuous and void of difficulty that children may handle him, youths may read him, men may understand him, and old men may celebrate him."--from The First Part of the Delightful History of the Most Ingenious Knight Don Quixote of the Mancha

• "Every man is as Heaven made him, and sometimes a great deal worse." (ibid). Don Quixote

Created expressions even used today• “The pot calling the kettle black. • “The sky’s the limit.”

• “A wild-goose chase”

Jonathan Swift Born in Ireland

Troubled childhood

Left for England-- later

returned to Ireland to live

with uncle

Went back to England,

attended Oxford

Returned to Ireland

His Works Proposal for the Universal Use of Irish Manufacture,

Drapier’s Letters, A Modern Proposal

Gulliver’s Travels (1726)- political commentary

I grew weary of the sea, and intended to stay at home with my wife and family. I

removed from the Old Jewry to Fetter Lane, and from thence to Wapping,

hoping to get business among the sailors; but it would not turn to account. After

three years expectation that things would mend, I accepted an advantageous

offer from Captain William Prichard, master of the Antelope, who was making a

voyage to the South Sea. We set sail from Bristol, May 4, 1699, and our voyage

was at first very prosperous.

Approach Towards Insanity

1728- Esther Johnson dies

Death of Mrs. Johnson and Verses on the Death of Dr.

Swift

William Durant, The Story of Civilization: "Definite symptoms

of madness appeared in 1738. In 1741 guardians were appointed to take care of

his affairs and watch lest in his outbursts of violence he should do himself harm.

In 1742 he suffered great pain from the inflammation of his left eye, which

swelled to the size of an egg; five attendants had to restrain him from tearing out

his eye. He went a whole year without uttering a word.”

Died 1745

Moliére Jean-Baptiste Poquelin

January 1622

Actor first

TB, he collapsed on stage

Buried next to unbaptized infants.

HIS WORKS

Rhyme

Liked tragedies but was better at farces

The Misanthrope, The Miser, The Imaginary

Invalid

pessimistic

Tartuff e or the Hypocrite

The public and King Louis XIV liked it

BUT it mocked high positions

BANNED- many times

Orgon is obsessed with Tartuffe the hypocrite

Makes foolish choices

Leads to the(temporary) destruction of his family

J ean R ac ine

One of the “Big Three” of the

17th century French influence.

A tragedian producing

neoclassical perfections.

His writings were known for

their elegance, purity, speed, and

fury.

One of the first French

playwright to live off of the plays

from his plays.

Background Born in 1639, was orphaned at a young age and

raised by his grandparents.

Studied rhetoric and law at numerous colleges.

At College of Harcourt started studying the

theatre.

His tragedies

Showed how men fall from prosperity to disaster.

The greater the fall of position the greater the tragedy

He describes the fate of kings, queens, princes, and

princesses, from the pressures of the society.

Racine and Love

Racine love was a physiological disorder.

A fatal illness that had deceptive hopes.

Racine shows destructive love within human beings in his

tragedies.

His Writings

Amasie was bought by the Bourgogne Company but was

never produced.

Moliere helped produce his second play The Baide in 1664

and Andromache in 1667.

His tragedies include The Litigants (1668), The Wasps,

Britannicus (1669), Iphigenia in Aulis (1674), and Phedre

(1677).

Andromaque (1667)

One of Racine’s well-known tragedies in five acts

First performed before Louis XIV by the royal company of

actors.

This play established his reputation as one of the great

playwrights in France.

Edward Gibbon Born in 1737 in Putney,

Surrey

Sickly child

Gained love of

literature from owner

of his boarding house

Did not enjoy college

Removed after

converting to Roman

Catholicism

His Works Essai Sur L’Etude de la Litterature (Essay

on the Study of Literature) (1761)

Grand Tour- Rome- The History of the

Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

"the great object of [my] pilgrimage...at the

distance of twenty-five years I can neither forget

nor express the strong emotions which agitated

my mind as I first approached and entered

the eternal City. After a sleepless night, I trod,

with a lofty step the ruins of the Forum; each

memorable spot where Romulus stood, or Tully

spoke, or Caesar fell, was at once present to my

eye; and several days of intoxication were lost or

enjoyed before I could descend to a cool and

minute investigation.”

Six volumes-- all published by 1788

Montaigne Essayist

Statesman

Strange upbringing

the collar of the order of St. Michael

married Françoise de la Cassaigne

Kidney stones

Henry of Navarre

STYLE

digression

Personal anecdotes

Essais

Wrote on everything from lies to ambassadors to

the education of children

On Friendship

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

HAMLET

WORKS CITED

http://shakespeare.mit.edu/

http://rarestkindofbest.wordpress.com/2011/04/21/shakespeares-theatre/

http://www.luminarium.org/encyclopedia/chamberlainsmen.htm

http://knol.google.com/k/cantor-s-paradise-lost#

http://www.notablebiographies.com/Ma-Mo/Milton-John.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moli%C3%A8re

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_de_Montaigne

http://

oll.libertyfund.org/index.php?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=168&Itemid=999

99999

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2027

http://kirjasto.sci.fi

http://books.google.com

http://victorianweb.org