author
Eustace Budgell
1686–1737
Best known as one of the notable contributors to The Spectator, he wrote with wit and confidence in early 18th-century London. His life mixed literary success, political ambition, and a final chapter marked by scandal and financial trouble.
3 Audiobooks
The De Coverley Papers, From 'The Spectator'
by Joseph Addison, Eustace Budgell, Sir Richard Steele
The Sir Roger de Coverley Papers
by Joseph Addison, Eustace Budgell, Sir Richard Steele
The Coverley Papers, From 'The Spectator'
by Joseph Addison, Eustace Budgell, Sir Richard Steele
About the author
Born near Exeter in 1686, Eustace Budgell was an English writer and politician with family ties to Joseph Addison, who helped open doors for him early in life. Budgell studied at Trinity College, Oxford, and became part of the circle around Addison and Richard Steele.
He is remembered chiefly for his essays in The Spectator, where he was a significant contributor after Addison and Steele. He also held public posts in Ireland and served in the Irish Parliament, showing how closely literary and political careers could overlap in his era.
Budgell’s later years were much less settled. He lost money after the South Sea Bubble, became embroiled in bitter disputes over a will, and was attacked by critics including Alexander Pope. He died in London in 1737, leaving behind a reputation shaped as much by controversy as by his lively prose.