Eighteenth-Century Critical Writing (Penguin Classics)

This collection of English literary criticism from 1660 to 1750 is an engaging look back to a time before literary criticism had become codified and professionalized -- when literary art and readers' reactions to it were considered not a separate sphere but an integral part of political, cultural, and social life. Organized chronologically into topics ranging from "Nationalism and the Stage" and "Poetical Correctness" to "Introducing Shakespeare" and "Editing Milton", it includes such celebrated works as John Dryden's "Of Dramatick Poesie, An Essay", Alexander Pope's "An Essay on Criticism", Richard Blackmore's "Advice to the Poets", and Jonathan Richardson's attack on the Bentley edition of Milton, in addition to the writings of lesser-known critics and commentators.