The diverse intellectual and artistic achievements of this century and a half are reflected in the lives and works covered in this volume. It was in this period that British writers began to move away from formally structured prose, creating a revolution in style that laid the foundations of contemporary prose style. Also, with much of the nonfiction of this time serving as how-to manuals on the art of living, a great many insights remain valid in our age. This collection covers writers such as David Hume, who was characteristically talented in a variety of disciplines. Best-known as a great philosopher, he framed the eras scientific discoveries and liberated thinking with his artful essays on everything from manners and tragedy to economics and history.

24 entries include: James Boswell, Edmund Burke, Oliver Goldsmith, Sir John Hawkins, Samuel Johnson, Catherine Macaulay, Thomas Percy, Hester Lynch, Adam Smith, Horace Walpole, John Wesley and Mary Wollstonecraft.