Writing and the Rise of Finance: Capital Satires of the Early Eighteenth CenturyThe early eighteenth century saw a far-reaching financial revolution in England. In this original study, Colin Nicholson reads familiar texts such as Gulliver's Travels, The Beggar's Opera and The Dunciad as "capital satires," responding to the social and political effects of the installation of capitalist financial institutions in London. While they invested in stocks and shares, Swift, Pope and Gay conducted a campaign against the civic effects of new financial institutions such as the Bank of England and the inauguration of the National Debt. Conflict between these writers' inherited discourse of civic humanism and the transformations being undergone by their own society is shown to have had a profound effect on a number of key literary texts. |
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Contents
Introduction | 1 |
trivial things in The Rape | 27 |
some investing contemporaries | 51 |
the strange case of Gullivers Travels | 91 |
The Beggars Opera | 123 |
Popes poetry | 139 |
figuring out credit in The Dunciad | 177 |
| 202 | |
| 212 | |
Other editions - View all
Writing and the Rise of Finance: Capital Satires of the Early Eighteenth Century Colin Nicholson No preview available - 2004 |
Common terms and phrases
activity appearance appropriate Bank become Belinda's Bubble called capital civic classical common Company concerned constructed continued Corr corruption Country culture debt Defoe describe developing Dunciad early economic edited effects England English Essay exchange expressed figure forces forms friends give given Gulliver Gulliver's Travels hand human imaginative individual interest investment John kind King landed leaving lines living Locke London Mandeville material means moral natural objects once Opera Opposition passion perception play poem political Pope Pope's possession possible practice present produce Rape readers Reason reference relations response rich rise satire seems sense share social society South Sea South Sea stock structure Subsequent suggests Swift things thought Tory trade traditional turn values virtue Walpole wealth Whig whole writing
References to this book
Bibliographic information
| Title | Writing and the Rise of Finance: Capital Satires of the Early Eighteenth Century Volume 21 of Cambridge Studies in Eighteenth-Century English Literature and Thought |
| Authors | Colin Nicholson, Professor Colin Nicholson |
| Edition | illustrated, reprint |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press, 1994 |
| ISBN | 0521453232, 9780521453233 |
| Length | 219 pages |
| Subjects | › › Business & Economics / Economic History Literary Criticism / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh Literary Criticism / Renaissance |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |