- For the period of Latin literature for which the English style is named, see Augustan literature (ancient Rome).
Augustan literature (sometimes referred to misleadingly as
Georgian literature) is a
style of
English literature produced during the reigns of
Queen Anne,
King George I, and
George II in the first half of the 18th century and ending in the 1740s with the deaths of
Pope and
Swift (1744 and 1745, respectively). It is a literary
epoch that featured the rapid development of the
novel, an explosion in
satire, the mutation of
drama from
political satire into
melodrama, and an evolution toward
poetry of personal exploration. In
philosophy, it was an age increasingly dominated by
empiricism, while in the writings of
political-economy it marked the evolution of
mercantilism as a formal philosophy, the development of
capitalism, and the triumph of
trade.
