18th-Century Classics

Poems  by William Blake (821 BLAKE)
Equal parts visionary, mystic, revolutionary, romantic, eccentric and lunatic.

Moll Flanders  by Daniel Defoe
This vivid saga of an irresistible and notorious heroine – her high misdemeanors and delinquencies, her varied careers as a prostitute, a charming and faithful wife, a thief and a convict – endures today as one of the liveliest, most candid records of a woman's progress through the hypocritical labyrinth of society ever recorded.

Tom Jones  by Henry Fielding
Chronicles the romantic adventures of a reckless, high-spirited, yet personable young man who sets out in search of his true identity and his fortune.

The Vicar of Wakefield  by Oliver Goldsmith
A vicar and his charming, if vain, family fall victim to undeserved misfortune in this 18th-century classic.

The School for Scandal by Richard Sheridan (822 SHE)
The middle-aged and wealthy bachelor, Sir Peter Teazle, has married the young and comely daughter of a country squire. The fashionable society of which Lady Teazle through her marriage becomes a part, occupies itself mainly with malicious gossip whose arrows no one, however chaste, can completely escape.

The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne
A witty 18th-century gentleman recounts his life and the comic adventures of his English country family.

Gulliver’s Travels  by Jonathan Swift
The unusual voyages and travels of Englishman Lemuel Gulliver carry him to such strange locales as Lilliput, where the inhabitants are six inches tall; Brobdingnag, a land of giants; an island of sorcerers; and a nation ruled by horses.

Candide, or Optimism  by Voltaire
The story of Candide, a naive youth who is conscripted, shipwrecked, robbed and tortured by the Inquisition without losing his will to live.

Complete Writings  by Phillis Wheatley (811 WHE)
During her life, while it was not common for American women to be published, it was especially uncommon for children of slaves to be educated at all. Her gift of writing poetry was encouraged by her owners and their daughter, Mary; they taught Phillis to read and write, with her first poem being published at the age of 12.

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft (305.4 WOLLS)
An important work which, advocating equality of the sexes and the main doctrines of the later women's movement, made Wollstonecraft both famous and infamous in her own time. She ridiculed prevailing notions about women as helpless, charming adornments in the household; according to her, society had bred "gentle domestic brutes."