The period immediately after the restoration of the monarchy in England is characterized by an emphasis on scientific thinking – which generated the first attempts at popular science writing. The ‘restoration’ of the monarchy also renewed the debates about the king's power, the rights of the people and the nature of society. The English public sphere and civil society became the subject of debate, even as the literary imaginations turned to scandals, domestic troubles and human relationships as the subject of plays and fiction.

PROSE

Non-fiction

Features of Restoration Non-fiction

• Essays ranged from philosophical to personal, covering gardening, environment, family, love affairs and politics

• Diaries that ranged in content and form from the personal to the philosophical/reflective were also quite common

• Genres included prose epistles, dialogues, pamphlets and periodicals

• Advice essays and biographies were popular

• Literary criticism and history writing, especially religious and political history, were also common

• Scientific investigations were reported as news items in learned periodicals

• The plain, direct style was preferred to rhetoric

• The emphasis was on information delivered in an unadorned style.

An interesting development in the Restoration period was the rise of an English prose that sought to popularize science. The Royal Society appointed a committee for the improvement of the English language in 1664. The committee included Dryden, John Evelyn, Edmund Waller and Bishop Thomas Sprat. Literature and science came together here, for many of these figures had interest in both areas.