This provided a fillip to production of literature and there was a great outburst of literary activity in England. One of the most brilliant writers of this period was Daniel Defoe (1659- 1731). He wrote a satire on the Aglican Church entitled The Shortest way with Dissenters and was imprisoned on the charge of pillory.

In the prison he started a paper entitled The Review (1704) which contained essay and editorials on public questions. In addition to this Defoe also produce works of fictions. Some of the prominent works include Robinson Crusoe (1719), the famous children classic; Journal of the Plague Year (1721); Moll Flanders (1722) and Roxana (1724).

Inspired by Daniel Defoe’s Review, Joseph Addison (1672-1719) and Richard Steele (1672-1729) produced polite and charming essays. An­other notable writer of this period was Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) who is popular for his bitter satires on the English society. He also authored the famous Gulliver’s Travels (1726), in which he expressed very low opinion about the men of his times.

Samuel Richardson (1689-1761)in his Pamela (1740) high lightened the heroic resistance of the advances of noble em­ployer by a maid-servant. The other outstanding literary figures who produced works representing the spirit of the age include Henry Fielding (1707-54) who wrote Joseph Andrews (1742) and the famous Tom Jones; Laurence Sterner (1713-68) who wrote Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy and A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy, Tobias Smol­lett, (1721-71) who wrote Roderick Random and Humphery Clinker; Oliver Goldsmith (1728-74) who is well-known for his Vicar of Wakefield. An­other notable figure of this period was the famous poet Alexander Pope (1688-17) who wrote Essay on Man and Dunciad, and translated Homer’s “Iliad and Odyssey.