This volume offers a selection of essays from The Tatler and The Spectator (1709-1714). The accompanying texts include excerpts from other periodicals such as The Guardian, The London Spy, and The Female Tatler; advertisements; and selections by Defoe, Ward, Flecknoe, Gay, Mandville, Pope, and Swift. A general introduction providing historical and cultural background, a chronolgy of Addison's and Steele's lives and times, an introduction to each thematic group of documents, headnotes, extensive annotations, a selected bibliography, and illustrations make this volume a unique scholarly edition of the periodical papers that helped define eighteenth-century culture and standards.