Joseph Addison Q: Discuss the prose style of Addison.

 Joseph Addison, a stylist essayist, a great moralist, a perfect preacher, a scholarly critic, a judicious journalist, a didactic philosopher, a keen observer of the contemporary society and a great literary figure of the 18^th century, is regarded as one of the most famous founders of modern prose style. To him goes the credit of inventing the middle style. Addison is regarded by most of the eminent critics to have created and wholly perfected English prose as an expression of social thought. There had been writers before Addison who contributed a great deal to the development of English prose style. Bacon, Covey, Hooker, Hobbes, Milton and Dryden had; in their own ways, done a great deal for English prose. But Addison developed a style along with his friend Steele which has become famous as The Middle Style, a style that is  familiar but not coarse, and elegant but not ostentatious, a style that is always equable, always easy, without glowing words or pointed sentences. In fact, Addison’s style has been said to be model style. Now let us discuss the various aspects of Addison’s prose style and his immense contribution to English prose that he made as an essayist through The Spectator and The Tatler especially through the periodical essays or Coverley Papers.

                        The first and foremost feature of Addison’s prose style is its clarity and lucidity of expression. He expresses his thoughts and ideas in simple and ordinary language without complexity and ambiguity, without obscurity and superfluity. His expression is so direct, clear, spontaneous, free, frank and vivid that the readers face almost no difficulty to understanding of the reader. For example, we can quote the long opening sentence of his essay Mr. Expectator:

“I have observed that a reader seldom peruses a book with pleasure till he knows whether of it be black or fair man, of a mild or choleric disposition, married or a bachelor, with other particulars of the like nature that conduce very much to the right understanding of an author.”

                         Addison is equally capable of expressing his ideas in short and compact sentences. For example, we can mention the following sentence from The Aim of the Spectator:

“I shall endevour to enliven morality with wit, and to temper wit with morality, that my readers may, if possible, both ways find their account in the speculation of the day.”

The brief and compact nature of his style is further reflected in the following line of Fans:

“Women are armed with fans as men with swords, and sometimes do more execution with them.”