The Tatler and The Spectator

At the beginning of the eighteenth century, some people started to write differently than before. We can say that it was the beginning of Journalism as we know it today with the magazines “The Tatler” and “The Spectator”.  This type of journalism was a sociological study of the reality, in a way, because it was not so concentrated in the news, but more on the depiction of society, on gossip, on the traditions of the English people.

Aspects that influenced the creation of these magazines are, for example, the tradition of describing everything in seventeenth century literary works, especially the description of the characters. Also, thanks to the author Eduard Ward, and his work “London Spy”; this, by the way, was published in 18 installments. The first one was published in 1698.  It was considered to be a “complete survey” of the London of that time, and its people.  Therefore, this was a perfect predecessor of these magazines because it set an example for them. Moreover, “The Spectator” and “The Tatler” were written in an epistolary way, style that was going to be used a lot during this century.  

The first magazine to be published was The Tatler, in the year 1709. It was created by Richard Steele. In this magazine, they talked about news and gossip. Nowadays, we normally do not have both things together, but one magazine that talks about the news and others that talk about gossip. Anybody could get this information in the coffeehouses of the time, but this was a way to have all the gossip and news in one place, and available for everyone. It was distributed three times a week, and at the beginning, he did not charge for them, but after some time he asked for a penny. Steele’s style was simple. The main purpose of the author was to teach the people that belonged to the middle class how to behave, because this was a new class, and they did not know how to behave in a formal situation; also, how to carry out a conversation, how to dress accordingly to their status, etc. It was published for two years. Two months after quitting “The Tatler”, Richard Steele and Joseph Addison began writing “The Spectator”. 

The aims of the Spectator were “to enliven morality with wit, and to temper wit with morality”. Like we said Tuesday morning, in a way it is always good to listen to popular music and classical music, because you can get the best of both. In the magazine, they treated important aspects of life in London, and gossip that everyone was interested in knowing.

Also, another aim was “to bring philosophy out of the closets and libraries, and school and collages to dwell in clubs and assemblies”. Here we can see the lifestyle of the society of the time, because everyone would get together in clubs and assemblies to talk about important things, so debating about these aspects was not only related to schools and libraries any more. Therefore, learning starts to be placed in a much more casual atmosphere. This is a very important change in their society that still affects us today. 

            The magazine became so popular, that it had imitations in other countries like in Germany and France. 

Another important aspect is that Steele gave a lot of importance to women. As far as he could, he wanted to change their inferior situation. Addison´s style was sophisticated and precise. He was also very good in describing his characters. It is said that he was also able of understanding inner qualities and relationships. This made describing his characters very easy.