Pamphlets

Many pamphlets dealing primarily with political and religious controversies were produced in the 18th century. Short pieces of prose writing written on a topical subject about which the author felt strongly, pamphlets had already been used during the Reformation, and became widespread in the 16th century. During the Civil War thousands of pamphlets, some of high literary quality, had been produced, and in the 18th century they supplemented the newspaper. Pamphlets were usually small, independent publications dealing with arguments that were too long for the single folio sheets or half sheets which constituted newspaper at that time. The pamphlet was highly diverse in nature: it might be argumentative in form or it could be a narrative or even a dialogue or a letter. Writers of the stature (szellemi kaliber) of Defoe, Swift and Fielding all used this influential format to attack various aspects of social and political life, often lacing the prose with generous helpings of incisive (éles) irony.

John Bull going to the wars

John Arbuthnot (1667-1735), close friend of Swift and Pope, used the pamphlet to write his The History of John Bull in 1712. In the pamphlet, the futility of the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-14) is displayed from the point of view of an English Tory. John Bull, an invention of Arbuthnot, has since become one of the most well-known symbols of England.

The New Journalism

The early 1700s witnessed considerable growth in the publication of newspapers, magazines, journals and reviews, and many accomplished writers – and future novelists – of the age (Defoe, Swift and Johnson) honed (fen) their considerable skills in the world of journalism. Articles and essays were written in a language which was easily understood: much of it was conversational in style, characterized by loose sentences, straightforward vocabulary and an absence of the rhetorical patterning so beloved of classicists. Figurative language was used sparingly (takarékosan) and the tone was frequently informal. It was a social prose for a social age. Journalism became a new trade plied to the satisfaction of a growing middle class which was slowly becoming the arbiter (ˈɑːbɪtə(r) – meghatározó) of taste and ‘public opinion’.The London coffee houses saw people discussing subjects as diverse as current affairs, politics, literature, fashion, gossip, entertainment, contemporary matters, fads (hóbort) and morals. The periodicals which could be obtained in the coffee houses catered to – and, indeed, actually helped to create – those selfsame interests. An 18th-century coffee house customer makes his point. Image: North Wind Picture Archives / Alamy. Early periodicals included Defoe’s The Review (1704-13) and The Examiner, which Jonathan Swift edited from 1710-11. Later in the century Samuel Johnson oversaw a twice-weekly periodical called The Rambler, a highly influential publication which ran from 1750 to 1752. But undoubtedly some of the finest prose of the 18th century is to be found in the so-called periodical essays of Richard Steele and Joseph Addison.