James How
Ashgate
Hardback
224
2003
The author of this new study here explores and describes the nature of what he terms 'epistolary spaces' phenomena that came into being as a result of the foundation during the 1650s of a Post Office available to the general public. He focuses on the history of letter writing by English men and women. In so doing he shows how the imaginations of letter writers were affected by the increasingly cheaper faster and more efficient postal services that were developed.The book makes a detailed study of five 'real' correspondences reading the letters in terms of their social and political interest and addressing such concerns as class gender collections of model letters and the importance of London to English epistolary spaces. Finally How examines the letters that constitute Richardson's novel Clarissa showing how the artistic achievement of Richardson's greatest work is aided by almost a century of imaginations of epistolary spaces.
Ashgate
Hardback
224
2003
The author of this new study here explores and describes the nature of what he terms 'epistolary spaces' phenomena that came into being as a result of the foundation during the 1650s of a Post Office available to the general public. He focuses on the history of letter writing by English men and women. In so doing he shows how the imaginations of letter writers were affected by the increasingly cheaper faster and more efficient postal services that were developed.The book makes a detailed study of five 'real' correspondences reading the letters in terms of their social and political interest and addressing such concerns as class gender collections of model letters and the importance of London to English epistolary spaces. Finally How examines the letters that constitute Richardson's novel Clarissa showing how the artistic achievement of Richardson's greatest work is aided by almost a century of imaginations of epistolary spaces.