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prevail. Then, the two parties were the Whigs and the
Tories.
The Whigs, a liberal party, descended from the
supporters of the Parliament. To have a foreign king
allowed the Parliament to hold the real power. That is
the reason why the Whigs supported the new
dynasty: it permitted them to rule and to support the
interests of commercial and professional classes.
On the other hand, the Tories, a conservative party,
were less powerful than the Whigs in this period. In
fact, they descended from the Royalist, they were
supporters of the monarchy and the Church of
England, and wanted the Stuart to come back (some
extremists among them, the Jacobites, tried and failed
two attacks to the king).
2) Middle classes (merchants, enterprisers, cultured
men) began to pay attention to fashion and
appearance. It was important not only to show ones
own wealth (have a big house, have fine clothes, etc.),
but also to attend fashionable places and cities Bath
became a very trendy holiday destination then.
Moreover, middle classes attended coffeehouses,
meeting places where intellectuals discussed about
policy: the most important political party were born in
a coffeehouse. Such an importance conquered by
intellectuals, made some jobs more important than in
the past: journalists and novelists became famous and
influential.
Augustan Age was characterised by the spirit of the
Enlightenment, a philosophical-scientific movement
based on rationality. The Enlightenment contrasts
with the irrationality of the Middle Age. The reason,
mans central capacity, is the base of this movement.
REMEMBER London was the centre of such new
life-style and trends, but the rest of the country
remained mainly rural.
During the Augustan Age the wealth of the State,
based on trade with the colonies, increased
dramatically and Britains position as a world power
was confirmed by the victory in the seven years war
against France, for the supremacy in the colonies.
The political and social stability was reflected by an
aesthetic which privileged order and harmony. The
balance and the sobriety of Augustan art descended
from the Puritan sense: Puritanism had become so
much a part of the national character that it
continued to exert an influence in daily life. Puritan esercitare un'influenza nella vita quotidiana.
pragmatism and realism would be an essential Pragmatismo e realismo puritano erano un elemento
essenziale nella nuova forma della letteratura: il
element in the new literature form: the novel.
romanzo.
The novel
In the Augustan Age we can assist to an increase of the interest in reading, also because of
the lower prices of the books, which made them more accessible even to the lower middle
class. This is why the new genre of literature, the novel, had been adapted to the ideology
and interests of these of the bourgeois public.
Even though there had been different types of novels (Richardson: sentimental, Defoe:
realistic, Swift: satirical), the novels were all written in a simple language and they
abandoned the characteristic of traditional literature like being based on history and
mythology.
The authors of the Augustan Age were mainly interested in real life, in stories that were
referred to the lives of their readers, rather than in substitutes for reality. A great
importance was given also to social behaviour such as politeness, common sense and the
art of conversation.
Novels had the goal to entertain the raising classes and therefore the plots were quite
simple and realistic. In this way time and place was always precisely set and the full name
of the main characters reported.
In et augustea possiamo assistere ad un aumento dellinteresse per la lettura, anche a causa dei
prezzi pi bassi dei libri, il che li rendevano pi accessibili anche per la classe media bassa. Questo
il motivo per cui il nuovo genere di letteratura, il romanzo, era stato adattato all'ideologia e agli
interessi del pubblico borghese.
Anche se esistevano diversi tipi di romanzi (Richardson: sentimentale, Defoe: realistico, Swift:
satirico), i romanzi sono stati tutti scritti in un linguaggio semplice e hanno abbandonato la
caratteristica dalla letteratura tradizionale come lessere basato su storia e mitologia.
Gli autori di Et Augustea erano principalmente interessati alla vita reale, a storie che si riferissero
alla vita dei loro lettori, piuttosto che a [storie in] sostituzione della realt. Grande importanza
stata data anche al comportamento sociale, come la gentilezza, il buon senso e l'arte della
conversazione.
I romanzi avevano l'obiettivo di intrattenere le classi emergenti e quindi le trame erano abbastanza
semplici e realistiche. In questo modo il tempo e il luogo era sempre precisamente impostato e il
nome dei personaggi principali riferito in modo completo.