The late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries saw the virtual reinvention of the known world. This book looks at the writing of the period from new perspectives, showing how the intellectual and cultural climate shaped and reshaped authors' responses and how it was, in turn, refracted by their works. Milton, Defoe, Swift, and Pope are discussed--but often in new guises and with emphasis on their involvement in contemporary cultural issues--along with lesser known writers such as Traherne, Behn, and the Wartons.