This is an anthology in progress of writing in English from 1650-1800. It is designed to be a transatlantic anthology, with examples of texts written in the British Isles, but also colonial America, which was, of course, a part of Britain until 1783, when the Treaty of Paris formally recognized the independence of the new United States of America. Many of the texts have been freshly edited and annotated to provide authoritative and curated editions for the use of students and general readers, and to create an alternative to expensive print anthologies. Over time, all of these texts (and more) will be edited and annotated to use the full resources enabled by the digitization of literary works. Please feel free to comment on these texts; we hope to improve the anthology based on the needs of readers.
The anthology is designed to work well on desktop and laptop computers, but also mobile devices like tablets and smartphones. We include the hypothes.is plug-in, which allows readers to add their own layer of annotation to the texts–to underscore key passages, add notes, ask questions. Go to www.hypothes.is for more information on how the plug-in works.
This is very much a work in progress. Some texts have been edited and annotated fully; others partially; others not at all. Author biographies are being drafted; material is being added. Keep checking back for updates.
This project is open-access, and the texts are available for anyone to use as they wish. We also invite others to join in the project by editing and annotating texts of their own, which can be incorporated in the site to create a free, open-access anthology of reliable works for use in the classroom.
Authors and Texts
*=newly annotated and edited for this anthology
Bradford, William: Of Plymouth Plantation
Bradstreet, Anne: “A Dialogue Between Old England and New“*
Defoe, Daniel: The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe*
Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe
Edwards, Jonathan: Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God
Equiano, Olaudah: The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano
Finch, Anne: “The Introduction,” “The Spleen“
Franklin, Benjamin: Autobiography
Gray, Thomas: “Elegy Wrote in a Country Churchyard”
Haywood, Eliza: Fantomina, or, Love in a Maze
Jefferson, Thomas: “Autobiography”
The Declaration of Independence
Notes on the State of Virginia
London: An Imitation of the Third Satire of Juvenal
On the Death of Dr Robert Levet
Locke, John: Of Civil Government (The Second Treatise of Government)
Pepys, Samuel: from The Diary
Philips, Katherine: Friendship in Emblem
Pope, Alexander: An Essay on Criticism
Rowlandson, Mary: Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mary Rowlandson
Rowson, Susanna: Charlotte Temple
Sheridan, Richard Brinsley: The School for Scandal
Steele, Richard: Spectator #2, Spectator #11
Tyler, Royall: The Contrast
Walpole, Horace: The Castle of Otranto
Wheatley, Phillis: Poems upon Various Subjects
Wilmot, John (Second Earl of Rochester): Satyr
Wycherley, William: The Country Wife
