Matching Eighteenth-Century Authors and Works

The idea

The century crowds many authors into one period, so sort by genre first. In verse, Pope wrote The Rape of the Lock, An Essay on Criticism and An Essay on Man; Gray wrote the "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard"; Johnson wrote The Vanity of Human Wishes. In prose satire, Swift wrote Gulliver's Travels and "A Modest Proposal." In the novel, Defoe wrote Robinson Crusoe and Moll Flanders, Richardson Pamela and Clarissa, Fielding Joseph Andrews and Tom Jones, Sterne Tristram Shandy, Burney Evelina and Walpole The Castle of Otranto. In drama, Gay wrote The Beggar's Opera, Goldsmith She Stoops to Conquer, Sheridan The School for Scandal. In other prose, Johnson wrote the Dictionary and Rasselas, Boswell the Life of Johnson, Equiano the Interesting Narrative. Then use a clue: letters suggest Richardson or Burney, a narrator who digresses Sterne, a calm monstrous proposal Swift.