Joseph Addison
The name Joseph Addison was once synonymous with the finest of English prose. Eminent writers from Voltaire to Lord Macaulay to John Steinbeck considered him a consummate master to be studied and emulated. According to Benjamin Franklin, Addison’s writings "contributed more to the improvement of the minds of the British nation, and polishing their manner, than those of any other English pen whatever." While his influence lives on in the sound and style of English today, the fame of this literary role model has faded from popular awareness. The Addisonian spirit, which ushered in an exceptional era of domestic peace in Britain and provided inspiration for the French and American Revolutions, coded many of the constitutional, political, and social agreements we continue to live with today. This book, the first comprehensive monograph of Addison in half a century, considers Addison’s contribution through an in-depth exploration of his writings, political work, social life, and theatrical stagings.
- Jason Shaffer, US Naval Academy, author of Performing Patriotism: National Identity in the Colonial and Revolutionary American TheaterAn informative and entertaining read that accomplishes a valuable act of recuperation. The performance studies and historicist angles that Poston takes are impressive. This book does work that other studies of Addison simply do not.
Dan Poston delivers a rigorous study of the major literary and political achievements of a key figure of the Enlightenment, culminating in his intense reading of Addison’s tragedy Cato, the emblem of the Silver Age of English Literature. This is a significant work of admirable scholarship, thoroughly researched and excellently documented, offering valuable insights into a major figure of the eighteenth century, captured in all his merits and contradictions.- Francesca Saggini, Università della Tuscia, Winner of the Walker Cowen Memorial Prize
Dan Poston effectively uses the central figure of Joseph Addison to illuminate the intellectual, cultural, and theatrical world of the eighteenth century that laid the foundation for so much of modern society.- Marvin Carlson
Dan Poston is Assistant Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Tübingen.
Chronology of Addison's Life in Historical Context
Introduction
1. Addison the Ancient Author
2. Everyday Prose after Newton
3. Slavery in Addison's Discourse
4. Addison's Theory of the Imagination
5. Staging a Shadow King: Addison's Theatrical Politics
6. Addison's Cato
7. Cato's Coda: Death after Tragic Fame
Notes
Bibliography
Index
