1700 to 1799: The Good Natur'd Man to Emilia Galotti

Chronology of World, British and American Literature

Oliver Goldsmith. British. 1768. Play. The Good Natur’d Man. Uncle tires to show extravagant Honeywood that his friends will abandon him if he loses his wealth.

Oliver Goldsmith. British. 1770. Poetry. The Deserted Village. Rural depopulation in the latter 1700s because of luxury, foreign trade, enclosure, and the growth of London.

Henry Mackenzie. British. 1771. Novel. The Man of Feeling. Episodic adventures of the bashful, sensitive, kind-hearted sentimental hero.

Tobias Smollett. British. 1771. Epistolary Novel. The Expedition of Humphrey Clinker. Letters written by different characters with highly individual style, caricaturing themselves. Tour of England, Scotland. Correspondents express varied reactions to the same events, for example, the hot wells at Bath.

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing. German. 1772. Play. Emilia Galotti. Middle-class woman unwittingly arouses the passions of a prince who has her bridegroom murdered. To save her honor, her father stabs her to death.