The periodical essay the product 18th century life and condition
Answers
Introduction:
The periodical essay was a new literary form that emerged during the early part of the eighteenth century. Periodical essays typically appeared in affordable publications that came out regularly, usually two or three times a week, and were only one or two pages in length. Unlike other publications of the time that consisted of a medley of information and news, essay periodicals were comprised of a single essay on a specific topic or theme, usually having to do with the conduct or manners. They were often narrated by a persona or a group of personas, commonly referred to as a “club.” (DeMaria 529)
For the most part, readers of the periodical essay were the educated middle class individuals who held learning in high esteem but were not scholars or intellectuals. Women were a growing part of this audience and periodical editors often tried to appeal to them in their publications. (Shevelow 27-29)
The Tatler (1709-1711) and The Spectator (1711-1712) were the most successful and influential single-essay periodicals of the eighteenth century but there are other periodicals that helped shape this literary genre.
The Beginnings of the Periodical Essay:
While the periodical essay emerged during the eighteenth century and reached its peak in publications like the Tatler and the Spectator, its roots can be traced back to the late seventeenth century. An important forerunner to the Spectator is John Dunton’s Athenian Mercury, which played a key role in the development of the periodical essay. (DeMaria 529-530)
The Athenian Mercury began publication in 1691 with the purpose of ‘resolving weekly all the most nice and curious questions propos’d by the ingenious.’ It did not publish essays. Instead it followed a question and answer or “advice column” format and is one of the first periodicals to solicit questions from its audience. Readers submitted questions anonymously and their candid inquiries were answered by a collection of “experts” known as the Athenian Society or simply the “Athenians.” (Graham 19) Dunton hinted that the Athenian Society was made up of a group of learned individuals, but in reality the society only consisted of three people who were not necessarily “authorities.” Their identities remained a secret, however, and this is one of the first instances of a periodical using a fictional social group or club to answer questions or narrate. (Hunter 13-15)
Each issue of the Athenian Mercury would answer anywhere from eight to fifteen questions on topics ranging from love, marriage and relationships to medicine, superstitions and the paranormal. Dunton received so many questions from female readers that he decided to devote the first Tuesday of every month to questions from women. (Berry 18-19) Examples of the questions submitted to the Athenians include:
Why the Sea is salt? (Athenian Gazette vol. 1 no.2), Whence proceeds weeping and laughing from the same cause? (Athenian Gazette vol.1 no.3) Whether most Persons do not Marry too young? (Athenian Gazette vol. 1, no. 13) and Whether it be proper for Women to be Learned? (Athenian Gazette vol. 1, no. 18)
As these sample questions demonstrate, the Athenian Mercury was focused on the social and cultural concerns of individuals. These subjects tapped into the reading public’s desire for knowledge, instructive information, and for something new and as a result, the Athenian Mercury was a huge success. (Hunter 14-15) Several features of the Athenian Mercury, such as its epistolary format and its creation of a fictional club, would be continued by another influential periodical published during the eighteenth century, Daniel Defoe’s The Review. (DeMaria 529-531)
Originally known as A Weekly Review of the Affairs of France; Purg’d from the Errors and Partiality of Newswritters and Petty Statesmen of All sides, the Review began publication in 1704 as an eight page weekly. The title, length and frequency of the periodical changed in subsequent issues until it eventually became a triweekly periodical entitled the Review. (Defoe, Secord xvii-xviii)
Most issues of the Review consisted of a single essay, usually covering a political topic, which was followed by questions-and-answers section called the Mercure Scandal: or Advice from the Scandal Club, translated out of French. Defoe eventually replaced the translated out of French with A Weekly History of Nonsense, Impertinency, Vice and Debauchery. (DeMaria 531) In this section, a fictional group known as the “Scandal Club” answered readers’ questions on a variety of subjects including drinking, gambling, love and the treatment of women. The advice column component of the Review was so popular among readers that Defoe began publishing a twenty-eight page monthly supplement devoted entirely to readers’ questions. By May 1705 Defoe dropped the Advice from the Scandal Club from the Review and began publishing the questions-and-answers separately in a publication entitled the Little Review. (Graham 48-49)