III. Late Enlightenment (Sentimentalism) (1750—1790).

The writers of this period, like the Enlighteners of the first two, expressed the democratic bourgeois tendencies of their time. They also tried to find a way out of the difficulties of the existing order. However, while their predecessors believed in the force of intellect, they considered feelings (or sentiments) roost important. The principal representatives of sentimentalism in the genre of the novel were Oliver Goldsmith (The Vicar of Wakefield) and Lawrence Sterne (Tristram Shandy, The Sentimental Journey) and in drama — Richard Sheridan (School for Scandal and other plays). The poetry of Robert Burns belongs to this period, too.

Romanticism (19th century)

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The Romantic period lasted about thirty years, from the last decade of the 18th century to the 1830s. Romanticism in literature was a reaction of different strata of society to the French Revolution and to the Enlightenment associated with it. The people were disappointed with the outcome of the Revolution. The common people did not obtain the liberty, fraternity and equality they had hoped for; the bourgeoisie found that the reality was not what the Enlighteners had promised it to be, although the Revolution had paved the way for capitalist development.

The progressive minds of Europe expressed this general discontent, because the influence of the French Revolution was felt all over the world. The new trend in literature (Romanticism) reflected it. The Revolution brought new problems for progressive-minded writers, who were faced with the necessity of finding an answer to such questions as their attitude to the feudal state, to the relations between the individual and society, to the common people.

The Romantic period in England had its peculiarities. During the second half of the 18th century economic and social changes took place in the country. England went through the so-called Industrial Revolution that gave birth to a new class, that of the proletariat. The Industrial Revolution began with the invention of a weaving-machine which could do the work of seventeen people. The weavers that were left without work thought that the machines were to blame for their misery. They began to destroy these machines or frames as they were called. This frame-breaking movement was called the Luddite movement, because the name of the first man to break a frame was Ned Ludd. The further introduction of machinery in different branches of manufacture left far more people jobless.

The reactionary ruling class of England was, however, decisively against any progressive thought influenced by the French Revolution; as a result the last decade of the 18th century was subjected to a rule that became known as the “white terror”. Progressive-minded people were persecuted and forced into exile as was Thomas Paine (1737-1809), the author of the Rights of Man, who had to flee to France.

The Industrial Revolution in England, as well as the French Revolution, had a great influence on the cultural life of the county. In addition to the problems that their European contemporaries were facing, the English writers of the period had to find answers that arose in their own country, such as the growth of industry, the rise of the working class movement and the disappearance of the peasantry.

Some of these writers were definitely revolutionary: they opposed the existing order, called upon the people to struggle for a better future, shared the people’s desire for liberty and objected to colonial oppression. Furthermore, they supported the national liberation wars on the continent against feudal reaction. Such writers were George Gordon Byron (1788-1824) and Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822).

Others, though they had welcomed the French Revolution and its slogan of liberty, fraternity and equality, later abandoned revolutionary ideas. They turned to nature and to the simple problems of life. They tried to avoid the contradictions that were becoming so great in all the spheres of social life with the development of capitalism. They looked back to patriarchal England and refused to accept the progress of industry; they even called on the Government to forbid the building of new factories which, they considered, were the cause of the workers’ sufferings. Among these writers were the poets William Wordsworth (1770-1850), Samuel T. Coleridge (1772-1834) and Robert Southey (1774-1843), who formed the “Lake School”, so called because they all lived for a time in the beautiful Lake District in the north-west of England. They dedicated much of what they wrote to Nature, especially Wordsworth. They showed the life of the common people in the English countryside that was overlooked by their younger revolutionary contemporaries. The “Lake” poets resorted to popular forms of verse that were known and could be understood by all.

One of the first works, published by W. Wordsworth and S. Coleridge in 1798, was a collection of poems under the title of Lyrical Ballads. In the foreword W. Wordsworth wrote that these ballads were written for everybody, in a language that everybody could understand.

The romanticists paid a good deal of attention to the spiritual life of man. This was reflected in an abundance of lyrical verse. The so-called exotic theme came into being, and great attention was devoted to Nature and its elements. The writers used such means as symbolism, fantasy, grotesque, etc.; legends, tales, songs and ballads also became part of their creative world.

A typical romantic hero was, as a rule, a lonely individual, given to meditations and seeking for freedom.

The romanticists were talented poets and their contribution to English literature was very important.