Essay upon Wit

Blackmore, Richard, Sir, 1654？-1729Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.8

Word count: 68K words
Chapters: 7

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Essay upon Wit by Sir Richard BlackmoreAuthor: Blackmore, Richard, Sir, 1654?-1729,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Sep 17, 2004

Editor's review

Essay upon Wit is a polemical piece by Sir Richard Blackmore on "wit," a central concept in late seventeenth- and eighteenth-century English literary culture. Writing from the standpoint of a moral critic, the author discusses the limits of wit, its abuses, and its relation to virtue; the style is contentious and the argument proceeds with clarity. It is a short text useful for understanding the literary controversies of the Augustan age. Its value lies not in systematic aesthetic theory but in the immediacy of contemporary critical debate: what counts as decorous wit, what is degenerate raillery, and where to draw the line between entertainment and instruction. As a public-domain electronic text it is brief, suitable as supplementary reading for courses in the history of English literary criticism, or for readers interested in late seventeenth-century moral criticism who wish to read it through quickly. Note that the polemical targets and allusions require some background knowledge; without it, one may grasp only the surface praise and blame.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Students and teachers in courses on the history of English literary criticism
Scholars studying late seventeenth- and eighteenth-century English literary controversies
Literature enthusiasts interested in the evolution of the concept of "wit"
Readers seeking a short public-domain English critical text for close-reading practice

Not a good fit for

Readers hoping for a systematic framework of aesthetic theory
Beginners with weak English reading skills and little knowledge of the period's background
Casual readers expecting light, humorous essays

Reading tips

First familiarize yourself with the late seventeenth-century English debate over wit and morality, then read the text
Summarize the author's core claims and the targets of his rebuttal paragraph by paragraph into a brief argument outline
Read alongside contemporary essays on wit to compare differences in position
The text is short; read it through once, then reread the next day, focusing on the turns in the argument

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

What is this essay mainly about?

The essay centers on "wit," a core concept in late seventeenth- and eighteenth-century English literary culture, discussing its meanings, its abuses, and its relation to moral instruction, with a clear polemical and moral-critical character.

Can I read it without a background in English literary history?

You can follow the literal meaning, but the text involves the literary controversies and allusions of its time; without background knowledge it is easy to misread the author's praise and blame. It is advisable to acquire some basic knowledge of Augustan literary controversy first.

What reading schedule suits its length?

As a single essay-length piece it is not long, suitable for one or two read-throughs; for close reading of the argument's structure, allow two or three days, working through several paragraphs a day and drafting an outline.

Comments

Find this book

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Blackmore, Richard, Sir, 1654？-1729 Author · British · 1654–1729

Sir Richard Blackmore (Blackmore, Richard, Sir, 1654?-1729) was an English physician and poet, born in the mid-seventeenth century and died in 1729. He practiced medicine while writing poetry, and his representative works include the epic King Arthur; he also wrote Essays upon Wit, a discussion centering on wit and ingenuity. The library currently holds one of his works, Essay upon Wit. Public information about the details of his life is limited, and much about his education, medical career, and social connections cannot be verified, so in literary history he appears mainly as a physician-poet. His writing is known for epic subjects and discursive prose, with a solemn style that reflects the late seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century English literary taste for reason and wit, offering reference value for later study of the literary interests and the concept of wit in that period.