A wide-ranging study of letter-writing in the eighteenth century, this book explores epistolatory forms and practices in relation to important areas of British culture. Organised around a series of characters, each chapter explores with depth and breadth the patterns of letter-writing and letter-reading in the period. Familiar ideas about epistolatory fiction and personal correspondence, and public and private, are re-examined in the light of alternative paradigms, showing how the letter is a genre at the centre of eighteenth-century life.

First published in 1992. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

The shared aim of these important new critical interventions into the early modern period is to make fresh feminist attempts to uncover the writings of Elizabethan and Jacobean women. Subject to silence, censorship and manipulation in the terms of overriding political concerns of the day, the feminist history of the early modern period is still a largely unwritten story. New feminist analysis can expose the conditions of production in which the history of the period was constructed: this revealing collection thereby exposes the untold stories which underpin the official texts. By beginning to explore this period from women's point of view, "Women, Texts and Histories" shows the crucial and fascinating ways in which women's writing may undermine many of the received assumptions on which the history of the period has depended. This book should be of interest to students and lecturers in English literature, history and women's studies.

This multi-disciplinary essay collection explores the controversial life and achievements of Sir John Hill (1714-1775), a prolific contributor to Georgian England's literature, medicine and science. By the time he died, he had been knighted by the Swedish monarch and become a household name among scientists and writers throughout Britain and Europe. In 1750s London he was a celebrity, but he was also widely vilified. Hill, an important writer of urban space, also helped define London through his periodicals and fictions. As well as examining his significance and achievements, this book makes Hill a means of exploring the lively intellectual and public world of London in the 1750s where rivalries abounded, and where clubs, societies, coffee-houses, theatres and pleasure gardens shaped fame and fortunes. By investigating one individual's intersections with his metropolis, Fame and Fortune restores Hill to view and contributes new understandings of the forms and functions of eighteenth-century intellectual worlds.

In this sparkling account, Brant uses the brief moment of balloon madness as a way into a wide-ranging exploration of Enlightenment sensibility in Britain. All the world is mad about balloons observers recorded during the craze in Britain that lasted from 1783 to 1786. Excitement about the new invention spread rapidly, inspiring hopes, visions, fashions, celebrations, satires, imaginary heroics and real adventures. In this sparkling account, Brant uses the brief moment of balloon madness as a way into a wide-ranging exploration of Enlightenment sensibility in Britain. She follows the craze as it travelled around the country, spread through crowds and shaped the daily lives and dreams of individuals. From the levity of fashion, political satire and light verse inspired by balloons, she shows how wonders of air and speed alsoconnected with the deeper preoccupations and anxieties of eighteenth-century Britain. An aerial 'view from above' provided new moral perspectives on the place of humans in the universe and the nature of their aspirations; while the success of the French, leaders in aeronautics, unsettled national identity with visions of a new world order. The practical limitations of balloons soon put an end to one set of possibilities, but their effect on popularculture was more enduring, with meaning even today. With a cast including kings, politicians, charlatans, pickpockets, the beau monde, duellists and animals, Balloon Madness celebrates the excitement and fun of this briefbut world-changing episode of history and its long afterlife in our imagination. CLARE BRANT is Professor of Eighteenth-Century Literature and Culture at King's College London.

This is an exploration of how sexual harassment came to be defined, what institutional forces and concepts shape our understanding of it and the limitations of the language used when discussing it. The book brings together essays written by feminist scholars and practitioners in the fields of law, literature, the social sciences, history and cultural studies. The contributors' central argument is for an awareness of the social and discursive contexts required to challenge sexual harrassment effectively. They offer insight into current limitations and make practical suggestions for ways forward.

This important book, now in paperback, explores epistolary forms and practices in relation to important areas of British culture. Who wrote letters? Who read letters? What were the conventions of letters and how were they understood? Each chapter explores these questions in relation to a series of characters, including men and women of letters, parents, lovers, criminals, citizens, travelers, historians and Christians. Bringing together a wide range of epistolary materials, both non-fictional and fictional, this original and important study gives extensively-researched understanding of the central place of letters in eighteenth-century writing, and a new way of looking at eighteenth-century life. The volume will be of immense value to literary scholars and historians alike, and marks an important milestone in eighteenth-century studies. 

Walking the Streets of Eighteenth-Century London will entertain and inform all who are interested in literature, history, and the city of London. This unique book invites the reader to walk along the dirty, crowded, and fascinating streets of eighteenth-century London in an unusual way. Nine leading experts from the fields of literature, history, classics, gender, biography, geography, and costume, offer different interpretations of John Gay's poem Trivia: or, the Art of Walking the Streets of London (1716). The poem - a lively, funny, and thought-provoking statement about urban life - accompanies the essays, in a new edition with comprehensive notes. The introduction paints a vibrant picture of London in 1716, depicting Gay's fascinating life and literary world, offering an invaluable guide to the poem. Together, these elements allow the heat, grime, and smells of the underbelly of eighteenth-century London come alive in new ways.