character-writing

The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature | 2003 | 700+ words | Copyright

character-writing. Books of ‘characters’ were popular in the 17th cent., and many were based, though some loosely, on Theophrastus translated by Casaubon in 1592 and by Healey (printed 1616, but previously circulated). The first was published in 1608 by J. Hall, followed by Overbury in 1614, the Satirical Essays, Characters and Others of J. Stephens in 1615, Geffray Mynshul's Certain Characters and Essays of Prison and Prisoners in 1618, Earle's Microcosmographie (1628), Richard Brathwaite's Whimzies (1631), and others. The ‘characters’ gave generalized but detailed descriptions of the behaviour and appearance of a class or type; they were on the whole short, succinct, pointed, and less discursive than the essay, also a popular literary form of the period.

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MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "character-writing." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. 29 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "character-writing." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. (May 29, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-characterwriting.html

MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "character-writing." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Retrieved May 29, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-characterwriting.html

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