Many eighteenth-century people wrote verse epistles, but no study has addressed their full variety and significance. This is the first book to cover the whole range of epistolary verse in the period, including not only the discursive type favoured by Pope and others, but also familiar and dramatic epistles. It advances a new model for defining the form, demonstrates the form's importance in the period, and pays special attention to non-canonical epistles, including those by women, occasional and labouring-class writers.

Women's adultery provides many of the plots that run through 19th century European fiction. This book discusses how novels of adultery have been theorized, argues its own theoretical perspective, and analyzes two 'circumtexts' of the fiction of female adultery: its pre-history in 18th century Britain, and its decline during the Naturalist period in France. It is the first dedicated study of the theory of the novel of adultery, and of the representation of adultery in earlier British and later 19th century French fiction.

This is the first book to cover the whole range of epistolary verse in the period, including the discursive type favoured by Pope and the familiar and dramatic epistles. It advances a new model for defining the form, demonstrates the form's importance in the period, and pays attention to non-canonical epistles by women and labouring-class writers.