Research Catalog

Enter the press-gang : naval impressment in eighteenth-century British literature

Title
Enter the press-gang : naval impressment in eighteenth-century British literature / Daniel James Ennis.
Author
Ennis, Daniel James, 1970-
Publication
Newark [Del.] : University of Delaware Press ; London ; Cranbury, NJ : Associated University Presses, [2002], ©2002.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Filter by

1 Item

StatusFormatAccessCall NumberItem Location
Request for On-site UseRequest Scan
How do I pick up this item and when will it be ready?
TextRequest in advance PR448.I53 E56 2002Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description
219 pages; 25 cm
Summary
  • "Even as press-gangs roamed the London streets, eighteenth-century writers applauded, critiqued, and condemned the practice Pepys called "a great tyranny" - the means of naval recruitment by which Britain simultaneously manned her fleets and oppressed her citizens.".
  • "This book centers on literature produced in "moments of crisis" - times when Britain faced a military challenge and thus needed her Navy most. When the French gained the upper hand early in the Seven Years' War, David Garrick was moved to write "To honour we call you, not press you like slaves, / For who are so free as we sons of the waves?" This characterization of the press as benign was common in the theater, even as sailors brawled with press-gangs on London Bridge.
  • At the same time, novelists bitterly attacked impressment policy, showing how the press weighs most heavily on the poor."--BOOK JACKET.
Subject
  • English literature > 18th century > History and criticism
  • Impressment in literature
  • Impressment > Great Britain > History > 18th century
  • Naval art and science in literature
  • Seafaring life in literature
  • Sailors in literature
  • Ships in literature
Note
  • Enlargement of author's dissertation (Ph. D.)--Auburn University.
Bibliography (note)
  • Includes bibliographical references (p. 205-214) and index.
Contents
Naval impressment: history, practice, representation -- Press-gangs and the eighteenth-century British novel -- Impressment and the London stage -- "A narrative of the sufferings": impressment and autobiography -- "The cursed gang": ballads of impressment.
ISBN
0874137551 (alk. paper)
LCCN
2001048060
OCLC
  • ocm47785658
  • SCSB-4272609
Owning Institutions
Columbia University Libraries