Collins -- The periodical essayist / Jane H. Jack -- Swift and the tradition of wit / D.W. Jefferson -- Books, readers and patrons / Pat Rogers -- Poetry in the eighteenth century / T.S. Eliot -- Alexander Pope / Norman Callan -- Integrity and dramatic life in Pope's poetry / S.L. Goldberg -- William Hogarth / V. de S. Pinto -- Samuel Richardson / Frank W. Brandbrook -- Fielding and Smollett / John Preston -- Tristram Shandy and the arts of fiction / D.W. Jefferson -- Augustan reflective poetry / Norman Callan -- Oliver Goldsmith / Boris Ford -- Shakespeare criticism / P.A.W. Collins -- William Cowper / D.J. Enright -- Samuel Johnson / Arthur Humphreys -- Architecture and landscape / Arthur Humphreys.

Sets 18th century literature in its social and intellectual context. Includes essays on John Dryden - Restoration comedy - Daniel Defoe - Jonathan Swift - Alexander Pope - William Hogarth - Samuel Richardson - Henry Fielding - Tobais Smollett - Thomas Sterne - Augustan poetry - Oliver Goldsmith - William Cowper - Samuel Johnson - Architecture.