Great Britain: Notable Writers (and their Works) and Notable Literary Developments

1640 - 1716 - William Wycherley (All Facts)

• English Playwright

1664 - 1726 - John Vanbrugh (All Facts)

• English Playwright

1660 - 1731 - Daniel Defoe (All Facts)

• English Writer, Journalist, and Spy

• He was the editor of “The Review”

• He authored many political pamphlets

1719 - Daniel Defoe: Robinson Crusoe / “The Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe of York, Mariner” (All Facts)

• Work which was inspired by the real life adventures of Alexander Selkirk, who got home after four years in solitude on the Pacific Island called Juan Fernandez, which had occurred some six years prior to the namesake work’s publication

• Work which tells of the namesake character, marooned for 28 years on an island, fifteen years into which he meet a “creature” called Friday sharing his island

• Work which was eagerly read by English / British readers at the time who took it to be a true account of a shipwreck

1685 - 1732 - John Gay (All Facts)

• English Poet and Dramatist

1728 - John Gay: The Beggar’s Opera (All Facts)

• Play which opened to an enthusiastic crowd in Lincoln’s Inn Fields

1688 - 1744 - Alexander Pope (All Facts)

• English Poet and Satirist

1712 - 1717 - Alexander Pope: The Rape of the Lock (All Facts)

1728 - 1743 - Alexander Pope: The Dunciad (All Facts)

1667 - 1745 - Johnathon Swift (All Facts)

• Anglo-Irish Writer, Satirist, and Essayist

1726 - Johnathon Swift: Gulliver’s Travels / Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World (All Facts)

• Work about the namesake character named Lemuel and his voyages to

  • Lilliput, an island off the Indies, where the people look human but are six inches tall

  • Brobdingnag, where there were people as tall as church steeples

  • Laputa, a flying island which he found himself in

  • the land of the Yahoos, a land filled with gross and violent human creatures which was governed by horses of wisdom who employ the Yahoos as their beasts

  • these four lands, where he explored human civilization made by the namesake author to appear ridiculous, barbarous, and disgusting

• Work which was eagerly bought and discussed with great amazement at the time of its publication

1683 - 1765 - Edward Young (All Facts)

• English Poet

1742 - 1745 - Edward Young: Night Thoughts on Life, Death, and Immortality (All Facts)