The Critical Review was a British publication appearing from 1756 to 1817. It was first edited by Tobias Smollett, from 1756 to 1763. Contributors included Samuel Johnson, David Hume, John Hunter, and Oliver Goldsmith.
The Critical Review was a British publication appearing from 1756 to 1817. It was first edited by Tobias Smollett, from 1756 to 1763. Contributors included Samuel Johnson, David Hume, John Hunter, and Oliver Goldsmith.
The Edinburgh printer Archibald Hamilton started publishing The Critical Review in 1756 with Tobias Smollett as its first editor. The content was mainly book reviews, which were often long and favourable, with copious verbatim quotations. [1] The Tory and High Church perspectives of contributors came through clearly, however. Besides Smollett, the writers of the first two volumes have been identified as John Armstrong, Samuel Derrick, Thomas Francklin, and Patrick Murdoch. [2]
After a libel against Admiral Sir Charles Knowles in the Review, Smollett was sentenced to a fine of £100 and three months in King's Bench Prison. In 1763 he retired from the Review, but left it as an influential publication.
Tobias George Smollett was a Scottish poet and author. He was best known for picaresque novels such as The Adventures of Roderick Random (1748), The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle (1751) and The Expedition of Humphry Clinker (1771), which influenced later novelists, including Charles Dickens. His novels were liberally altered by contemporary printers; an authoritative edition of each was edited by Dr O. M. Brack Jr and others.
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1756.
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1757.
Robert Anderson was a Scottish author and critic.
Charles Churchill was an English poet and satirist.
John Mills was an English writer on agriculture, translator and editor. Mills and Gottfried Sellius are known for being the first to prepare a French edition of Ephraim Chambers's Cyclopaedia for publication in 1745, which eventually resulted in the Encyclopédie published in France between 1751 and 1772.
William Wilkie was a Scottish Church of Scotland minister and Professor of Natural Philosophy primarily remembered as a poet nicknamed Potato Willie, known more respectfully as the "Scottish Homer". The son of a farmer, he was born in West Lothian and educated at Edinburgh. In 1757 he produced the Epigoniad, dealing with the Epigoni, sons of seven heroes who fought against Thebes. He also wrote Moral Fables in Verse.
Travels Through France and Italy is travel literature by Tobias Smollett published in 1766.
Smelfungus is a name given by Laurence Sterne to a character in his novel "A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy", written in 1768. The character was created as a satire of Tobias Smollett, himself author of a volume of Travels through France and Italy, which was published in 1766. Sterne had met Smollett during his own travels in Europe, and strongly objected to Smollett's 'spleen, acerbity and quarrelsomeness.' He modelled the character of Smelfungus on him for the 'snarling abuse he heaps on the institutions and customs of the countries he visited.'
Literature of the 18th century refers to world literature produced during the years 1700–1799.
Samuel Derrick (1724–1769) was an Irish author. He became known as a hack writer in London, where he gained wide literary connections.
The Monthly Review (1749–1845) was an English periodical founded by Ralph Griffiths, a Nonconformist bookseller. The first periodical in England to offer reviews, it featured the novelist and poet Oliver Goldsmith as an early contributor. Griffiths himself, and likely his wife Isabella Griffiths, contributed review articles to the periodical. Later contributors included Dr. Charles Burney, John Cleland, Theophilus Cibber, James Grainger, Anna Letitia Barbauld, Elizabeth Moody, and Tobias Smollett—who would go on to establish the Monthly's competitor in 1756, The Critical Review. William Kenrick, the "superlative scoundrel", was editor from 1759 to 1766.
William Rider was an English historian, priest and writer. Whilst he wrote a number of works, his New Universal Dictionary suffered in comparison with that written by Samuel Johnson and his 50-volume work A New History of England was unsuccessful; it was later described as one of the vilest Grub Street compilations ever published. He was a chaplain and master at St Paul's School for many years, as well as being associated with the Mercers' Company and churches in the City of London.
James Grieve FRS was a Scottish translator, writer and physician. As translator of ‘Celsus,’ his work helped restore a path to classical medicine.
Samuel Sharp FRS (1709–1778) was an English surgeon and author. As a surgeon at Guy's Hospital, from 1733 to 1757, was internationally famous. His A Treatise on the Operations of Surgery, was the first British study focuses exclusively on operative technique.
Thomas Francklin was an English academic, clergyman, writer and dramatist
Arthur Collins (1682–1760) was an English antiquarian, genealogist, and historian. He is most known for his work Peerage of England.
The Complete Farmer: Or, a General Dictionary of Husbandry is an 18th-century English-language encyclopaedia, holding a summary of information on agriculture and in all its branches. It was written by members of the Royal Society of Arts under the pseudonym a Society of Gentlemen, and first issued in 1756 and published in weekly numbers until 1768.
Events from the year 1756 in Scotland.