The Sensational Restoration

The Sensational Restoration introduces readers to English Restoration writing, which is known for its skeptical libertinism. Here are portrayals of social mores, attitudes toward the arts, economic and political questions, social problems, and conventions of social graces. Among the writers' themes we find youth, cynicism, religious and philosophical assumptions, gender issues, and class and economic debates. The anthology begins with excerpts from Thomas Hobbes's Leviathan (1651), and includes Sir Walter Charleton's The Ephesian Matron (1659), a selection of poems, Sir George Etherege's The Man of Mode (1676), William Wycherley's The Plain Dealer (1676), Aphra Behn's The Rover (1677), and Thomas Shadwell's The Virtuoso (1676). Jensen provides a general introduction, as well as an introduction and annotations to each work.