First published in 1974, The Augustan Vision looks at the entire spectacle of Augustan Society in an attempt to see English culture as a whole and thus gain greater insight into this critical period in English Literature.

Introduction Part I: Landscape of the Age 1. The Shape of Society 2. Elites and Oligarchies 3. Ideas and Beliefs 4. Pleasures of the Imagination 5. The Dress of Thought 6. Communications 7. Roles and Identities 8. Books and Readers 9. Men, Women and Sex 10. Undercurrents Part II: The New Design: Poetry, Drama, Letters 11. Turn of the Century 12. The Widening Vista 13. Sensibility 14. The Letter-Writers 15. Drama Part III: Parables of Society: Satire and the Moral Essay 16. The Satiric Inheritance 17. Swift 18. Pope 19. Gay and Scriblerian Comedy 20. Dr Johnson Part IV: Tables and Confessions: The Novel 21. Origins of an Art Form 22. Defoe 23. Richardson 24. Fielding 25. Sterne and Smollett Notes and References Reading List Index