Edward Ward, The London Spy

Alison O'Byrne (University of York)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.05: English Writing and Culture from the Glorious Revolution to the French Revolution, 1689-1789.
Vol. editors: Paul Baines (University of Liverpool), Daniel Cook (University of Dundee), Pat Rogers (University of South Florida), Nicholas Seager (University of Keele)

Domains

Periodicals

Dates

First circulation or publication 1698 - 1700

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Spy and Espionage

Resources

Save to Bookshelf

In November of 1698, Londoners were presented with a new periodical venture that its author, Ned Ward, described as “a complete survey of the most remarkably places, as well as the common vanities and follies of mankind (both day and night)” as seen in London.

The London Spy

(1698-1700) was a monthly publication lasting eighteen months, written in the authorial voice of a philosopher who throws aside book learning (with “a fig for St. Augustine…a fart for Virgil…and a turd for Descartes”) in favor of actual experience. Clearly indebted to the success of Giovanni Paolo Marana’s

Letters Writ by a Turkish Spy

(first translated into English in 1687), the periodical presented everyday scenes already familiar to its London readership through the eyes of a new arrival from the…

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1221 words

Citation: O'Byrne, Alison. "The London Spy". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 08 August 2005 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=16838, accessed 21 November 2024.]