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Quinn, Edward. "Augustan age." Writer's Reference Center. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 17 Apr. 2025. <http://fofweb.infobase.com/wrc/Detail.aspx?iPin=Gfflithem0070>.
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Augustan age

Definition 
The term refers to two periods of literary history.

  1. The reign of the Roman emperor Caesar Augustus (27 BCE–CE 14). In this period Latin literature was in its so-called Golden Age, as represented by the poetry of Virgil, Ovid, and Horace.
  2. Writers in England in the first half of the 18th century invoked a parallel with Rome to describe the literature of their period. They promoted the writings of Alexander Pope, Jonathan Swift, Joseph Addison, and Richard Steele not only for their intrinsic merits but also as models of "correct" literature as defined by the doctrines of neoclassicism.
The period also saw the development of a distinctly nonneoclassical form, the novel. Major practitioners of the newly developed genre included Daniel Defoe (Robinson Crusoe, 1719; Moll Flanders, 1722); Samuel Richardson (Pamela, 1740–42; Clarissa, 1747–48), and Henry Fielding (Joseph Andrews, 1742; Tom Jones, 1749).

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