The Evolution of English Prose, 1700-1800: Style, Politeness, and Print Culture

by Carey McIntosh

Overview

At the beginning of the eighteenth century ordinary written English was close to speech; by 1800, people expressed themselves more formally, politely, and precisely. The new "writtenness" of prose coincided with the development of a mature print culture, the rise of women writers, the invention of prescriptive grammars, and a powerful new rhetoric. Carey McIntosh traces these changes and illustrates them with comparisons of work by Defoe and Paine, Swift and Burke, Addison and Johnson, Shaftesbury and Godwin, and Astell and Wollstonecraft.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521021548
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	10/20/2005
Edition description:	Revised ed.
Pages:	292
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.75(d)

Table of Contents

Preface; 1. The ordering of English; 2. Literacy and politeness: the gentrification of English prose; 3. Testing the model; 4. Loose and periodic sentences; 5. Lofty language and low; 6. Nominal and oral styles: Johnson and Richardson; 7. The new rhetoric of 1748–93; 8. The instruments of literacy; 9. Politeness; feminisation; 10. Style and rhetoric; Epilogue - language change.

Editorial Reviews

"This fascinating book rewards close attention, both in the larger categories of the history of eighteenth-century writing and in many insightful readings of individual passages. The over-all argument...is convincing, the practical demonstrations illuminating, the definitions of terms pertinent and clear. Highly recommended." The East-Central Intelligencer

"Well argued and well written, this fascinating book is recommended for upper-level undergraduates, graduate students, and researchers." Choice

"This is clearly a major, if not the major, work on the subject to date, painstakingly researched, comprehensively argued, and lucidly expressed...[McIntosh] has written was seems to be the definitive treatment of the development of eighteenth-century English prose." Modern Philology

"Carey McIntosh's assertive, intelligent, wide-ranging, and free-wheeling new book should prove important, as well as fascinating, to scholars investigating the language, especially literary language, of eighteenth-century Britain...Any student of the eighteenth century of any sort would find this book both useful and immensely interesting. His theses are possible, plausible, well argued. McIntosh's own style is itself so persuasive that the reader feels him-or herself to be convinced." The Age of Johnson: A Scholarly Annual

From the Publisher