David Nokes

{{short description|British scholar}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

David Nokes FRSL (11 March 1948 – 19 November 2009) was a scholar of 18th-century English literature known for his biographies of Jonathan Swift, John Gay, Jane Austen, and Samuel Johnson. He also penned screenplays, including a BBC adaptation of Samuel Richardson's novel Clarissa (1991) and an adaptation of Anne Brontë's novel The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1996).{{Cite web |last=Brant |first=Clare |date=2009-12-07 |title=David Nokes obituary |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/dec/07/david-nokes-obituary |website=The Guardian |access-date=2016-12-11 |archive-date=2017-02-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170213090755/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/dec/07/david-nokes-obituary |url-status=live }} He was also a leading reviewer for The Times Literary Supplement and the London Review of Books.{{Cite web |date=2009-12-03 |title=Professor David Nokes: writer and scholar of the 18th century |url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article6941435.ece |website=The Sunday Times |access-date=2010-07-07 |archive-date=2010-05-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100523231744/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article6941435.ece |url-status=dead }}

Nokes attended King's College School, Wimbledon, London. He received an MA from Christ's College, Cambridge in 1972 and a Ph.D. in 1974. He started teaching at King's College London in 1973, was elevated to reader in 1986, and was promoted to Professor of English Literature in 1998.

In 1994, he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.{{Cite web |title=Royal Society of Literature All Fellows |url=http://www.rslit.org/content/fellows |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100305070326/http://www.rslit.org/content/fellows |archive-date=5 March 2010 |access-date=10 August 2010 |publisher=Royal Society of Literature}}