Although there were no self-avowed British atheists before the 1780s, authors including Jonathan Swift, Alexander Pope, Sarah Fielding, Phebe Gibbes, and William Cowper worried extensively about atheism's dystopian possibilities, and routinely represented atheists as being beyond the pale of human sympathy. Challenging traditional formulations of secularization that equate modernity with unbelief, Reeves reveals how reactions against atheism rather helped sustain various forms of religious belief throughout the Age of Enlightenment. He demonstrates that hostility to unbelief likewise produced various forms of religious ecumenicalism, with authors depicting non-Christian theists from around Britain's emerging empire as sympathetic allies in the fight against irreligion. Godless Fictions in the Eighteenth Century traces a literary history of atheism in eighteenth-century Britain for the first time, revealing a relationship between atheism and secularization far more fraught than has previously been supposed.

Documents eighteenth-century literary representations of atheism, arguing that opposition to atheism generated unique forms of religious belief.

18th Century London. A young woman in a London playhouse, intrigued by the men at the theatre, decides to pretend she is a prostitute. She enjoys talking with one Beauplaisir and he, believing her favours to be for sale, asks to meet her. She demurs and puts him off until the next evening. In preparation, she rents lodgings and then meets him at the theatre the following night. They go to the house and she realizes that Beauplaisir wants to have sex and resists him, but he does not listen to her protests and rapes her. Afterwards, she is despondent and rejects his money, which confuses Beauplaisir, who did not believe her protestations. Worried about her reputation, she gives her name as "Fantomina". Soon, however, Beauplaisir tires of her and leaves for Bath. She follows him. Dressed as a country girl, she obtains employment at the inn where he is staying, as a maid. Will he recognize her? Can she regain his love? FANTOMINA is a classic eighteenth century novella, written by witty and satirical author, Eliza Haywood. Eliza Haywood (c. 1693 - 25 February 1756), born Elizabeth Fowler, was an English writer, actress and publisher. An increase in interest and recognition of Haywood's literary works began in the 1980s. Described as "prolific even by the standards of a prolific age", Haywood wrote and published over seventy works during her lifetime including fiction, drama, translations, poetry, conduct literature and periodicals (Blouch 7). Haywood is a significant figure of the 18th century as one of the important founders of the novel in English. Today she is studied primarily as a novelist. OROONOKO PRESS is committed to making classic texts by pre-twentieth century authors available for a contemporary audience.

Set in early eighteenth-century Scotland, "The Private Confessions of a Justified Sinner" recounts the corruption of a boy of strict Calvinist parentage by a mysterious stranger under whose influence he commits a series of murders. The stranger assures the boy that no sin can affect the salvation of an elect person. The reader, while recognizing the stranger as Satan, is prevented by the subtlety of the structure of "The Private Confessions of a Justified Sinner" from finally deciding whether, for all his vividness and wit, he is more than a figment of the boy's imagination. "The Private Confessions of a Justified Sinner" was really about 150 years ahead of its time. Published in 1824, it has everything readers of post-modern novels could ask for, including clustered narratives, self-reflexive point-of-view, unreliable narrators, and an unsympathetic-protagonist. Hogg is engaging in a highly playful exercise, yet at the same time "The Private Confessions of a Justified Sinner" can be read as an entirely chilling depiction of what may happen to the human psyche when it is given absolutely free-reign. Everything about "The Private Confessions of a Justified Sinner" works" The comic characters are wonderfully depicted (including Hogg himself, who puts in an appearance as an unhelpful clod who's too busy observing sheep at a local fair to assist the editor and his party when they want to dig up Wingham's grave). Wingham's descent into fanaticism and his subsequent psychological disintegration is handled as well as it possibly could be. It is also a perfectly drawn cautionary tale about the pitfalls of antinomian religious beliefs.

Set in early eighteenth-century Scotland, the novel recounts the corruption of a boy of strict Calvinist parentage by a mysterious stranger under whose influence he commits a series of murders. The stranger assures the boy that no sin can affect the salvation of an elect person. The reader, while recognizing the stranger as Satan, is prevented by the subtlety of the novel's structure from finally deciding whether, for all his vividness and wit, he is more than a figment of the boy's imagination. This edition reprints the text of the unexpurgated first edition of 1824, later 'corrected' in an attempt to placate the Calvinists.

Set in early eighteenth-century Scotland, the novel recounts the corruption of a boy of strict Calvinist parentage by a mysterious stranger under whose influence he commits a series of murders. The stranger assures the boy that no sin can affect the salvation of an elect person. The reader, while recognizing the stranger as Satan, is prevented by the subtlety of the novel's structure from finally deciding whether, for all his vividness and wit, he is more than a figment of the boy's imagination. This edition reprints the text of the unexpurgated first edition of 1824, later 'corrected' in an attempt to placate the Calvinists.Considered by turns part-gothic novel, part-psychological mystery, part-metafiction, part-satire, part-case study of totalitarian thought, it can also be thought of as an early example of modern crime fiction in which the story is told, for the most part, from the point of view of its criminal anti-hero. The action of the novel is located in a historically definable Scotland with accurately observed settings, and simultaneously implies a pseudo-Christian world of angels, devils, and demonic possession.The first edition sold very poorly and the novel suffered from a period of critical neglect, especially in the nineteenth century. However, since the latter part of the twentieth century it has won greater critical interest and attention. It was praised by Andr� Gide in an introduction to the 1947 reissue and described by the critic Walter Allen as 'the most convincing representation of the power of evil in our literature'. It has also been seen as a study of religious fanaticism through its deeply critical portrait of the Calvinist concept of predestination. It is written in English, with some sections of Scots that appear in dialogue.

"A real work of imagination, ponderated and achieved." ? Robert Louis Stevenson The son of a radical Calvinist minister conducts a crime spree that horrifies eighteenth-century Scottish society in this gripping tale of murder, madness, and demonic possession. According to Robert Wringhim, his crimes are attributable to the influence of a sinister companion, Gil-Martin ? but it remains to be seen whether Gil-Martin really exists. Published anonymously in 1824, this ahead-of-its-time novel offers a haunting exploration of religious fanaticism and the power of evil. The author, Scottish poet and novelist James Hogg (1770?1835), overcame his lowly birth and lack of education to become one of the most admired writers of his day. Although his writings fell into obscurity after his death, they were rediscovered in the 1940s by André Gide and other critics. The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner is Hogg's best-known and most highly acclaimed work