The Industrial Revolution had a dramatic effect on life and literature of the 18th century. Whereas the 17th century saw literary works addressed to the aristocracy, the 18th century found the men of the middle class taking a new interest in the arts. Coffeehouses played an important role in disseminating literary tastes. The steady growth of industry drew people into the cities, so that writers considered it catastrophic to be forced to live away from the intellectual excitement of the urban centers. Industrialization was accelerated by important mechanical inventions (e.g., spinning jenny, flying shuttle, water frame, steam engine) and scientific advances of the late 17th century (e.g., development of the telescope, thermometer, barometer, pendulum clock, Newton's law of gravitation, development of analytical geometry and calculus, beginnings of entomology), which also contributed to the intellectual atmosphere.
Neoclassic literature is characterized by conformity. Neoclassic writers were classicists only in the sense that they imitated the literary forms of the ancients; their subject matter was always the life of their own times. Their works show a respect for cities and interest in the general laws of conduct for urban society as a whole rather than the concerns of individuals. Their preferred form of expression was satire.