2008-09 AM Richard Head, The English Rogue (1665)

Richard Head’s (and Francis Kirkman’s) The English Rogue (1665-71) is an intriguing and multifaceted book. The first copies of the first volume were printed secretly, sold at alehouses and appreciated as grossly indecent. The license followed with the second edition in 1665. The book was successful, yet no work the author wanted to continue. The text had been interpreted, so Head felt, as autobiographical, his reputation had already suffered enough – which did not prevent his publisher, Francis Kirkman, from adding continuations till 1671. It has been said that Head was involved in the further production – he denied it.

The book had played with traditions, it was translated into a foreign language, German, and it inspired numerous imitations - yet it did not become “The first English Novel”; Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe (1719) reached that fame in 1957. The discussion of predecessors has hardly rediscovered Head. We will ask why that is the case and try to explore the peculiar (more or less) fictional biography in attempts to contextualise it.

Kelly Jamison, Why is London frequently visited and mentioned?

Latroon in London, pdf file

Sebastian Brinkmann: The English Rogue & Sexuality

The topc of sexuality, erotica and pornography in general as well as their application in the text. Please also download my .pdf from Stud.IP

The_English Rogue and Sexuality, pdf

Good secondary reading Robert Darnton on the pornography and the enlightenment - well and there is more... Create a list and I order titles for our library.

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• Robert Darnton, The Forbidden Best-Sellers of Pre-Revolutionary France (New York: Norton, 1995).
• Lynn Hunt, The Invention of Pornography: Obscenity and the Origins of Modernity, 1500-1800 (New York: Zone, 1996).

Jana Lühring: Readership and Style

The theme that I am going to present you is the analysis of the readership. My thesis is that the origin readership of the English Rogue was from the upper class and thus more or less educated. To support this thesis, I will refer to a few text passages by which we get hints at the readership. First, I start with the frontmatter and the advices it gives us. Then I will quote some other text passages, in which direct or indirect hints are presented concerning the readership. Finally, I will read with you into the chapter LIII and afterwards discuss which difficulties occur and how we would classify the readership, after looking at this chapter.

(copied and pasted from e-mail --Olaf Simons 14:21, 19 January 2009 (UTC)).

Julian Trempel: The English Rogue : Francis Kirkman and Richard Head

I am going to present to you my research on who really wrote 'The English Rogue' Part II-IV, and why, and what the relationship of Francis Kirkman and Richard Head was like, proving with primary and secundary textes.

General Information

Topics

• The history of editions
• The French Rogue
• The Spanish Rogue
• Nationalism
• Novel and Play
• The Trivialisations
• The question of authorship
• The poor as the object of laughter?
• Crime
• Clothing
• Pornography?
• Men and Women
• The social bond
• The German translation
• An (Auto-)biography?
• Stylistic improbabilities
• An overview of research
• Childhood
• Truth, fiction and romance
• The illustrations
• Scatology
• Religion
• (Poetical) Justice
• What the novel wants to teach us
• Love
• Colours, smells and touches
• Age
• Pity
• Moments of reflection
• Money
• Punishments
• Whoring
• Poems and Prose
• Included Letters
• Cuckolding
• Reputation
• Masters and Servants
• Professions
• Gaming
• The witty Extravagant

Links

• en.wikipedia.org - information on Richard Head

Texts

• [Richard Head] The English rogue described in the life of Meriton Latroon, a witty extravagant. London: Francis Kirkman, 1666. EEBO Anglistik Server Oldenburg
• [A shortened chapbook version:] The life and death of the English rogue, or, His last legacy to the world. London, 1679. EEBO