Sentimentalism：

Sentimentalism originated in the 18th century, and was a direct reaction against the cold, hard commercialism and rationalism that had dominated people’s life since the last decades of the 17th century. Besides, it seemed to have appeared hand in hand with the rise of realistic English novel. Sentimentalism often relates to sentimentality and sensibility in some literary works such as Richardson’s Pamela; Goldsmith’s The Vicar of Wakefield; Sterne’s A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy. In Poetry, we have Thomas Gray’s “An Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”, Goldsmith’s “The Deserted Village”, and Cowper’s “Task”, not mention the various odes of sensibility which flourished in the later half of the century.