The Lives and Letters of an Eighteenth-century Circle of AcquaintanceIn recent years, there has been a remarkable resurgence of interest in women's letters, for they tell us much about women's and men's lives. The Lydia Clerke letters, which form the basis of this book, are no exception. Including 31 letters written by nine different people, they render an intimate portrait of English life during the second half of the eighteenth century. Meticulous transcriptions of the letters are accompanied by interpretive essays which provide historical and biographical contexts. Illuminated by extensive archival research, the letters give new insight into the importance of female friendship, the predicament of the woman intellectual, the sexual vulnerability and power of the young unmarried woman in aristocratic society, and the economic and emotional instability of wives even in companionate marriage. The letters also touch on the volatile world of eighteenth-century India and on the courage and cruelty of the men who built the British Empire |
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Contents
The Rise of the Novel the Death of the Author | 7 |
and the Lydia Clerke Letters | 11 |
The Letters the Letter Writers and Their Worlds | 23 |
Overview | 25 |
John Clerke | 33 |
Thomas Winstanley | 43 |
Susannah Dobson | 55 |
Ann Clerke One | 87 |
Ann Clerke Three | 145 |
Ann Clerke Four | 151 |
Sylvia Brathwaite | 157 |
Authors Collection | 201 |
Sylvia Thornton | 203 |
Sylvia Parkhurst | 217 |
Sarah Clerke | 223 |
courtesy of the Essex Record Office | 226 |
Charles Clerke One | 93 |
Charles Clerke Two | 103 |
Ann Clerke Two | 115 |
Charlotte Lennox | 121 |
Closing the Circle | 235 |
Biographical Sketches of the Letter Writers | 249 |
Chronology | 259 |
283 | |
Common terms and phrases
acquaintance Ann Clerke archive aunt Banastre Tarleton believe Betty Rizzo biography Bonnell Thornton born British brother Cambridge Castle Hedingham century Charles Clerke Charlotte Lennox circle Clerke family Clerke's daughter dear friend death died Duchess Duke eighteenth eighteenth-century Elizabeth England English epistolary epistolary novels Essex Family Records Centre father fear feel Female Quixote fiction friendship Gentleman's Magazine George ghosts give heart Hester Thrale History hope husband India James John Brathwaite John Clerke Johnson Joseph Lady learned letter to Lydia literary lives London Lord Lydia Clerke Lydia Clerke letters marriage married Mary Maty Miss Montagu mother narrative never niece novel Oxford Parkhurst perhaps picture poor Prince of Wales published Record Office Royal Samuel Johnson Sarah Clerke second letter sexual sister story Susannah Dobson Sylvia Brathwaite Sylvia Thornton Tarleton tell Thomas Winstanley Townsend University Press voyage Wethersfield wife William woman women writes written York young