Here's a novel about a young English woman (Cecilia, of course) whose parents and uncle have all died, leaving her a considerable fortune...

The “Confessions”, frequently referred to as the first modern autobiography, came out in 1782, four years after author Jean-Jacques...

Awhile ago, I told you that I found Samuel Richardson's “Clarissa” infuriatingly difficult to read because the characters were either too...

Don't be fooled; despite the title, “Reveries Of The Solitary Walker” does not have very much walking in it. Then again, this is...

Fanny Burney is only the sixth woman, out of 56 books so far, whose work appears on the “1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die” list,...

This is one of those items of popular culture that impacts the society to such an extent that the mere fact of its existence is almost...

The most obvious difference between “The Expedition Of Humphry Clinker” and Tobias George Smollett's other work is undoubtedly that, in...

When it comes to the older literature on the “1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die” list, I've at least heard of most of the titles....

I find “A Sentimental Journey Through France And Italy” a trifle confusing. This may be due to the fact that Laurence Sterne never...

At the end of Volume 6 of this work, Mr. Shandy as the teller of his own life story provides a drawing of his narrative line over the...

Some years ago, Robert Duvall starred in a movie called "The Apostle" about a famous television preacher who loses everything largely...

Written some years before the American Revolution by a Member of Parliament, it should come as no surprise that Horace Walpole's work...

We're told that of all his works, and there were a lot, Jean-Jacques Rousseau considered “Emile, Or On Education” to be the “best and...

Jean-Jacques Rousseau has been called a great many thing, both during his life and after his death – a philosopher, a political theorist,...

Wikipedia shows a good many works by Samuel Johnson just prior to the American Revolution = plays, poems, essays on a multitude of...

In many cases (though certainly not all), the most influential works of art took the shortest amount of time to produce. Take “Candide”....

The older I get, the less patience I have with fools. A great many people besides me get impatient with fools, of course. The surprise to...

Novels from this period, including Fielding's, frequently share a number of characteristics – length, episodic structure, plots that deal...

I confess that I'm not sure what I can say about “The Adventures Of Peregrine Pickle” that will distinguish it from other English novels...

Well, here it is - maybe the most famous dirty book in the history of the English language. And it's dirty, all right, but what it mostly...