Definition of Letter

 

OED definition of letter,

 

I. An alphabetic character and related sentence

a. A character representing one or more of the elementary sounds used in speech and language; any of the symbols of an alphabet used in written language.

 

II. A written text on paper, parchment, etc., and related senses.

a. A written communication addressed to a person, organization, or other body, esp. one sent by post or messenger; an epistle.

On the basis of second definition, a letter is written message/document that provides communication among people, organizations about a common concern.

 

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Importance of Letters 

 

Even though letter writing has been replaced by modern ways of communication-which begins with the invention of telegraph in the 19th century-,  it has a wide history to look at. Since letters are documents which provide historical and linguistic data, it is possible to understand shifting ideas on social status, gender, privacy/secrecy, language as well as social interactions developed among people throughout the history by tracing the changes in the formation of letters. In addition to this , letter writing as genre, which was a common  practice during the eighteenth-century, is a useful mean to explore the collective consciousness of a specific epoch. The eighteenth century,  which is the main focus of the the following page,  is conceived by many scholars and historians as an age of remarkable society and correspondence because people were encouraged to form communities, through which they could share and discuss their ideas on their everyday life, on their age and so on. Letters was one of those communities in which people at a distance could manage to share ideas and connect with the others. Of course, formation of literary communities around letters was highly related to the increase in the literacy rate during the eighteenth century. In Pen, at the end of the section named "Pens as a representation of women's freedom", you can find a chart that shows the literary rate in the eighteenth century. 

 

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A Brief History of Letter Writing Until Eighteenth-Century

 

Letters have been around for a long time as a way of communication. Ancient and medieval letter writers theorized letter writing as a product of oral culture/literature (Shemek 2013) because they considered epistolary as a part /sub-field of rhetoric. For instance, according to William Fulwood whose work "The Enemies of Idlenesse"(1571) was considered as the first letter writing manual in English, an epistle is "nothing else but Oration written".  Additionally, the medieval art of letter writing "Art Dictaminis"  focused on an exact organisation and well-worked out modes of letter writing. Medieval letter writers had to adjust their style according to some strict rules. That's why they followed a five part division. Each part of a letter had its own features and rules:

 

Part One: Salutatio

This part of the letter which lets the recipient knows to who it is addressed and from whom it is. This part has to contain the names of both parties. Among equals, or from an inferior to a superior (or to show extra respect), the recipient should be mentioned first. From a superior to an inferior,  the sender’s name should be put first.

Part Two: Captatio Venevolentiae

This is the part in which the addressee puts the recipient in a good frame of mind toward the sender by sending good thoughts toward the health and wealth of the recipient and that of his family. Here is another chance to prepare the reader to look kindly upon sender and the substance of his/her letter. This section

is important in securing the reader’s interest in sender`s topic.

Part Three: Narratio

This part explains the circumstances of the sender. Telling the recipient of the general news and happenings of those in the area, and what may have happened in the timeline of the writing. 

Part Four: Petitio

In this part the recipient is finally given the true reason of the letter, with the request and all pertinent information with which to give judgment, this can be omitted if the letter is not requesting any favors. This is where sender can offer prayers, advice, threats if necessary. 

Part Five: Conclusio

And finally the part of the letter that brings all the above together tied neatly and goodbyes and more well wishing are expressed. Sender may wish to ‘affirm’ – state his/her loyalty or pleasant/evil consequences.

 

Along with these five parts, signature, dates and the way in which sender folds the letter are important.Signatures and dates are required to give the letter its authenticity. If the author of the letter will not sign it, then the letter could be considered a forgery by many and would have been a cause for jailing the delivery boy, or causing a war.Signature goes at the end of the letter while dates are penned up at the top of the page with where the writer was in residence alongside it.The folding part is vital because it shows elegance. The first thing that recipient sees is the letter's shape,so it should be neat.

 

Apart from the structure of  a letter, the identity of the recipient was important factor to write a letter- word choices, style of writing and on-. Fulwood (1571) says that the wit, the estate, dignity or quality of the recipient, whether publick or private person, rich or poor, friend or foe, familiar or stranger should be taken into account. In his manual, he categorizes three addressee as "superiors,equals and inferiors". Then he explains three different ways of writing for each group/category. For instance,

 

-If the recipient is superior,then one must write "with all honour,humilitie, and reuerence, bring to personages superlatiue and comparatiue termes: as most high, most mighty, right honourable, most redowted,most loyal, most worthy,most renowned,altogether according to the qualitie of their personage"(1571 2).

-If he/she is is inferior, then one must "use a certayne kynde of odest and ciuill authoritie,in giuing them playnely to understand his/her intent and purpose" (1571 4).

 

This understanding of proper way of writing letters led to production of manuals, like Fulwood's above, which taught to elite and commoner how to craft a letter and improve their technique of writing letters. Those letter writing manuals also were especially essential for the middle class because they sought a way to underline their social status by showing themselves as thoughtful and capable of writing a letter like an aristocrat. Anna Bryson suggests that entire style of a letter correlates the social position of the sender and recipient. That's why, she believes that letter writing is a way to measure social respectability (Bryson 1998:159)  From her argument, it is plausible to say that  this new social class overtly benefited from those manuals both to prove their social identity and to gain respectability. There was an increase in the production of manuals towards the eighteenth-century, through which more and more middle class members  and commoners benefited.

 

 Here's a part of a manual written by Daniel Defoe. In his work , The Complete English Tradesman, Defoe, both as a writer and a trader, explains how a tradesman should write a letter.  

(Figure 1)

 

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Letter Writing in the Eighteenth-Century and The Practice of Familiar Letter

 

Towards the eighteenth-century, however, the letter writing practices became more informal and the old models of letter writing were outdated. There was a growing tendency towards the use of simpler and more intimate terms instead of medieval elaborate rhetoric (Nevalainen 2001: 207). As opposed to Fulwood, it was recommended in The Art of Letter-Writing  that the sender should avoid “these pretended Ornaments, which were formerly so studiously sought after”(1762  3; henceforth ALW).  In the eighteenth-century, the nature of letter writing was directed to a new form that some historians define as "familial/familiar letters". Familiar letters, as the name implies, had a simple and intimate tone. Their focus was on the expression of emotion, rather than writing under a rigid form. They were circulated mostly among couples, families and friends. 

 

One of the reasons why people started to write in a unstudied, familiar way might be related to the era's interest in "authenticity". During the eighteenth-century, many people like Alexander Pope assimilated an administration of a graceful, yet unstudied compositional style because they loathed the"artifice" and sought authenticity.For instance, many writers and critics like Alexander Pope claimed that writing was admirable when it appeared artless and unstudied. Ease, candor and immediacy were the hall marks of excellence (Earle 6). Thus they believed that letters should represent the truest and least affected form of expression. In other words, they asserted that letters should resemble to a genuine correspondence between friends. This, of course, led some transformations in the literary productions of letter writing as well as the social life shaped around letters. Many literary scholars asserts the letter writing became commodity during the eighteenth century. They claim that the appeal of real, genuine letters created a market for stolen letters. Bandits were robbing postal carriages and post boys so that they could steal letters whether letters included bank notes or not. Because of that, people were afraid of mail theft since they knew that their letters contained exclusive, private information about their doings that could be used for the market. For instance, it is said that Alexander Pope suspected his own servants of stealing his letters with a wish to sell them within at an immense price (Anderson 7). Here's also an interesting trial of John Mills in 1785 that shows the importance of letters during the eighteenth-century;

 

(Figure 2)

 

In the document, it is said that John Mills was convicted because he stole a letter from the Post office, which was "sent by John Child , from Neath, in the county of Glamorgan to William Holmer , of Alhallows-lane, London". The letter for its sender and recipient was important because it contained a lottery ticket. The trial was initiated by Mr.Fielding, who suggested that Jury should be very careful about the decision because the life of the prisoner is at stake. However, at the same time, he also suggests that Mills' action is very serious because it harms the interests of "commercial country", which required a high security in terms of correspondence among individuals. In a way, John Mills was convicted because he jeopardised this "commercial society" by violating safety of individuals' correspondence. At the end of the trial, he was found guilty and punished by death. This trial shows the importance and seriousness of letters (in comparison to a man's life) in the mercantile/commercial society emerging in the eighteenth-century. To read more about the details of the trial of John Mills, please refer to Old Bailey Proceedings Online, January 1785, trial of John Mills. 

 

As well as the era's interest in authenticity, the idea that humans are "social animals who need social exchange" was widely accepted and enhanced the communication among people during the eighteenth-century. According to this idea, human needs to form social bonds so that they can continue to live. This was so widespread that Joseph Addison and Richard Steele tried to analyse the reasons why people in the eighteenth-century gathered around coffee houses, clubs and shared their experiences (or needed to communicate). For instance, it is stated in The Spectator, No 9 that many people participated in Clubs and Assemblies because "man is said to be a sociable animal" (Addison&Steele 9) . Along with clubs and societies, letters also provided a community in which people could form social bonds. Even though the content of the letters became more personal and private (They were not merely used for diplomatic, scholarly or mercantile purposes), letter writing still remained as a communal practice. For example, prior to being posted, familiar letters were circulated around family members who could add brief postscripts (PS). Along with letter writing, letter reading  was entirely social affair. Letters writers expected their letters to be read by more than one person. Additionally,letters were also a communal practice since they  also had a political value like newspapers. Through letters people shared foreign and local news and commented on them. In a way, around their correspondence, they formed a political community. That's why, people might be afraid of theft of mails because their letters contained their own political and social commentaries about their nation/society. 

 

The eighteenth-century was also marked by the quest for self-expression and individuality that changed the understanding of the letter writing. This quest can be related to expansion/increase in literacy, especially within the urban life. More and more people were reading and inscribing. Under these circumstances, they might consider letters as a means of self-expression. John Locke says "the writing of letters has so much to do in all the occurrences of human life that no gentleman can avoid showing himself in this kind of writing... his pen... always lays him open to severer examinations of his breeding, sense and abilities than oral discourses"(Locke 180). This quotation shows how a letter is dependent to its sender's identity. However, it also underlines the fact that even though letter writing became informal and personal, the letter writers still had to care about how they write a letter because, as Locke puts, letter lays open an individual identity to the public. A gentleman, as Locke says, has to follow and fulfil the demands of the polite society so that he could go on being a gentleman. In short, during the eighteenth-century, letter writing became much more private and familiar, conceived as a way to express oneself, yet individuals were still under the surveillance of of imagined and very hierarchical eighteenth-century society. 

 

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Familiar Letters and Epistolary Fiction during the Eighteenth-Century

Definition 

According to Encyclopaedia Britannica, 

An epistolary novel is "a novel told through the medium of letters written by one or more of the characters"

 

Epistolary fiction became popular under the circumstances stated above.During the eighteenth-century, there was a flourishing publications of epistolary novels, including Samuel Richardson's Pamela and John Cleland's Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure. There were between 100 and 200 epistolary works published and sold in London during the early eighteenth-century (Perry 15). For instance, Eliza Haywood, an eighteenth-century English writer, actress and publisher, issued 18 volumes of epistolary work between 1724 and 1727. These numbers also imply the great demand for the epistolary works during the eighteenth-century. Epistolary fiction was important because it offered a "delicious" sensation of intimacy, authenticity and attracted a vast readership. One of the reasons of that "delicious" sensation of intimacy and authenticity was the practice of familiar letter that led to turning of "formal letter writing" into "a personal, genuine way of writing". Editors and Publishers benefited from the idea of authentic reading experience of letters. For example, many of them claimed that the letters they were publishing were fallen into their hands so that they could underline the fact that those letters were not written in a planned way, more precisely, did have an agenda to be published.  Charles Gildon (c.1665-1774) published "The Post-Boy Robb'd of his Mail or the Pacquet Broke Open ", a series of tales about love, friendship, gallantry written in an epistolary form. The title implies that each letter had been acquired with a random instance.

 

Here's the title page of the book and an excerpt of a letter from it. As can be seen, title - in which the word "letter" in upper case is immediately drawing attention-implies that due to this "accidental" incident letters were revealed, through  which virtues,vices, follies, intrigues could be "discovered". In other words, the book offers an experience of discovery of an individual's interior/self and the letter shows that a sorrow of a woman who seeks an answer/reply from her indifferent lover.In addition to the cover page, the letter I present shows how the tone of letters became more sincere, and unstudied. The letters do not follow a strict rule that medieval writers advocated. 

 

(Figure 3)

 

Again, in the same work, Gildon claims that "the difference betwixt these letters prompted by the immediate Occurrences that occasion'd the writing of them, and those which same Epistle writers have publish'd for examples for the world copy after: Nature and Easiness appear in the first, and Study and Awkward Pains in the latter" so that he could call attention to the difference between his candid collection and the artificial letters in manuals.  

 

Like Gildon's work, Giovanni Paolo Marana's (although there is a discussion on authorship of the book among critics) Letters Writ by a Turkish Spy was claimed to be "discovered by meer (mere) chance" because A Man of Letters (an Italian man) found "a great heap of Papers; which seemed more spoiled by Dust than time" in a corner of a chamber in Paris where he moved into.  The letters belong to "Mahmut the Arabian" who observes and reports the customs and politics, including state secrets, of Europe -especially France- to Istanbul/ Constantinople ( which was the capital of the Ottoman Empire during that time). The letters were a medium for secret information. They narrate a conceit life led in disguise.  The way that they're found corresponds to the eighteenth-century demand of authenticity that is underlined by being discovered by chance. In addition,  it is claimed that the writer of the letters- Mahmut- "explains himself neatly and speaks of Things with great Frankness. His style shews a great Liberty of Spirit, and never Passion"  which also satisfies the eighteenth-century culture that "was settling into the conviction that unvarnished truth could be best found in simple language and direct sentences" ( Perry 75). The work was translated into English in 1687 by the hack writer William Bradshaw.It was very popular during that time since it also provided a window into the reign of Louis XIV for English readers( Ballaster 208). The book had gone into fifteen complete editions until 1801 and Daniel Defoe - he was highly affected by the work- even wrote his own A Continuation of Letters Written by a Turkish Spy at Paris in 1718. The eight volumes of the text can be found on https://archive.org/ 

 

Here's the frontispiece to Giovanni Paolo Marana, 'The First Volume of Letters Writ by a Turkish spy' made by Frederick Hendrik Van Hove.

(Figure 4)

 

Epistolary writing has been important because it also allows its writers to construct fictitious selves. It allows the writers to assume multiple,sometimes contradictory personas, through which they could create social bonds with various recipients and could fulfil society's demands.  For example, Samuel Richardson's Pamela, especially later parts of the novel, is about reclaiming of the individual by society.  Pamela presents a virtuous character to readers (including her mother and father) through her letters. However, readers can understand her sexual arousal/feelings towards Mr.B through the same letters. Her parents always reminds her the danger because they realize their daughter's feelings hidden in letters like most of the readers. Since Pamela's feelings do not accommodate with the virtuous woman identity, Pamela has to reclaim her value, which she manages through marriage. At the end of the novel, Pamela become the mistress/wife of that bourgeois society that demands morality, virtue. 

 

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Postal Service in the Eighteenth-Century  

 

Eighteenth century is the period in which the practice of personal writing had reached its peak. This led to transformations in the the postal service and the practice of delivery. Improvements within the delivery system, provided cheap, quick and secure correspondence for many people. In the early years, delivery system had been used among institutions such as monasteries ,guilds and a few powerful people because they felt the need to contact about important, formal issues. For example, Henry VIII appointed Brian Tuke as England's first post master so that he could control the flow of posts and letters, yet these letters/posts were not personal/private because for nearly two centuries, Henry and his successors were too fearful of sedition to actually encourage the delivery of private correspondence (Robinson 7), that's why posts primarily served for royal court and formal correspondence. Postal Couriers conveyed mail packets on horseback along four routes Scotland,Ireland, Plymouth  as well as Dover and the Continent (Robinson 21-22) as Brian Tuke oversaw. To see more about Postal Couriers, please look at carriages. 

 

Postal Service belonged to the royal court until 1635 when Charles I made it available for public use. Oliver Cromwell established the General Post Office in 1657. However, because of expensive cost which was calculated through distance, number of pages , only the wealthy people such as merchants and elites could afford to send letters.Commoners simply had to rely on people (a friend, a colleague and so on) travelling to another town to serve as a messenger. In Samuel Richardson's epistolary novel, Pamela, which was published in 1740, the protagonist can send her letters to her family thorough the help of his friend. For instance, she finishes her first letter by saying " I send it (the letter including four guineas) by John,our footman, who goes your way;but he does not know what he carries; because I seal it up in one f the little Pill-boxes which my Lady, wrapt close in Paper, that it mayn`t chink; and be sure don't open it before him" (Richardson 12) because she can't afford to send her letters through a postal service. Additionally, even though John is a friend of hers, Pamela is very careful about her letters. She endeavors to hide what's in it because she can't rely on her friend. 

 

In addition, the General Post office did not deliver letters within London which turned into a problem while the city was growing. Therefore, in 1680, William Dockwra introduced a local enterprise, Penny-Post in London, which carried letters within the city, It is called penny-post because letters were delivered with fair price- one penny-. This system was adopted by other cities like Edinburgh and Manchester and throughout the island, delivery of letters- personal, business etc.- became easy and affordable.  Of course, there is again a reciprocal relationship between the increase in letter writing and improvement of the postal service. The improvement and the usage of the postal service increased due to the growing practice of letter writing, as letter writing increased due to advantages that new system of postal service provided. 

 

Fun fact : Daniel Defoe advertised Penny-Post  for not charging for “a single Piece of Paper, as in the General Post-Office, but [sending] any Packet under a Pound weight . . . at the same price.'” 

 

Here's also an image of Penny-Post's advertisement made by the enterprise itself. What is underlined is the fact that this company provides a cheap way to send their letters for letter writers. It was directed to that particular group, which includes middle class, as well. 

 

(Figure 5)

 

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Letter Writing and Femininity during the Eighteenth-Century

 

(Figure 6) 

 

In her 1989 anthology of essays on epistolary literature, Elizabeth Goldsmith advocated the idea that in the early eighteenth-century, letter writing was widely regarded as a genre in which woman excelled. Some people think that one of the reasons why women excelled in the letter writing in the eighteenth century, is the general belief that women have an untutored and spontaneous expression (in their nature) which correspond to the eighteenth century letter writing practice, demanding a familiar, unstudied writing.  However, this belief is open to criticism since it makes "being spontaneously expressive" essential for women and leads to the idea that letter writing is a gendered, feminine form. Instead, like Goldsmith, it might be said that there is a noticeable connection between the letter writing and woman during the eighteenth century (without assigning gender to the genre ) because the familiar letter writing led to the formation and representation of female identity and sexuality during the eighteenth century. For instance, letter writing became a means of self-expression, more precisely, as Goldsmith says, "a life line" for cloistered woman who had been isolated from public life (Goldsmith 12) . Virginia Woolf also talks about letter writing practice for women during the eighteenth century. In one of her essays, she mentions Dorothy Osborne, who was known for her letters that present the life of young English gentlewoman ;

"Had she been born in 1827, Dorothy Osborne would have written novels. Had she been born in 1527, she never would have written at all. But she was born in 1627, and at that date though writing books was ridiculous for a woman there was nothing unseemly in writing a letter"  (Woolf 60). Woolf's commentary on Osborne supports the idea that the letter writing was conceived as a mode of expression preferred by women who led rather cloistered lives. Along with that, her commentary also implies that letter writing was a phase, more precisely, en route to professional authorship for women. 

 

Epistolary fiction during the eighteenth century enabled women to create and represent their sense of life. Letters were outlets for social and political activities, from which women were set apart. They could share their comments on social, political issues with their friends through sending letters to each other. One of the most interesting female letter writers was Lady Mary Wortley Montagu who lived between 1689-1762. She is particularly known for her letters  about her travels to the Ottoman Empire. In 1717, she accompanied her husband Edward Wortley Montagu, on his ambassadorial  mission to the Ottoman court. Her letters are very important because they show that she also explicated her own culture and society as well as giving account of cultural, domestic life of the Other. She shared her commentaries and critique of her own culture through her letters. She had fourteen addressees whom she generally disguised with initials especially when the letters were meant to be published. 

(Figure 7)

 

In one of her letters whose recipient is unknown, she describes events related to her stay in Sofia, namely events related to the Turkish baths. In the baths, she says "there were two hundred women, yet none of those disdainful smiles, or satiric whispers that never fail in our assemblies, when anybody appears that is not dressed exactly in the fashion" (Montagu 101). When she sees all those women naked and without "wanton smile or immodest gesture", she compares it to her own culture that cares much about appearances and clothing. Eighteenth century was marked with the increase of luxury and fashion which brought a decorum on what/how one should wear, yet Lady Mary Wortley Montagu criticizes he fact this interest on appearances corrupts the morality. According to her, cloths made her contemporaries jealous, immodest, harshly judgmental. Normally, in many orientalist texts, the other is used as a medium to protect and sustain European culture and body politics, especially the place of woman within it. However, in her letter, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu uses the other as to question the culture which she lives in.

 

(Figure 8)

 

As well as her critique on the commercial culture of the eighteenth century, she also focuses on the oppression of women. When she goes into the baths, women wants her to take off her clothes but she tries to "excuse herself with some difficulty" until she was persuaded to "open her skirt and show them her stays". After that, she says that "I saw they believed I was locked up in that machine that it was not my power to open it, which contrivance they attributed to my husband"(Montagu 103). As opposed to other women (which were also oppressed by the patriarchal culture in public life), she could not take her off clothes. She implies that those women-at least- are freer than her in their nakedness whereas she is troubled with the ideal of a fine lady, whose body oppressed by male figures. She presents the figurative and literal constraint of the "stays" to her readers. For more information about stays, please refer to Corsets. However, it should be underlined that her sentence is tricky because she does not directly convey what she thinks. Instead, she uses other women as a mouthpiece. She only "sees". As can be seen, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu is one of  female letters who used letter writing as a way to reflect political and social ideals. 

 

 

                                                                                             (Figure 9)

 

Since letters became a public expression for women who led cloistered lives, it led to the creation of discussion groups and societies in which women could share their experiences under a male dominated society. One of the well known societies in the eighteenth century is Blue Stockings in which women- privileged women who could have a slightly better education- could discuss various topics,including art ,literature and politics which were generally reserved for men.  Elizabeth Montagu, founder of the society, was a public figure in the eighteenth-century, who brought together a number of connected lives . In a way, she helped people, especially women, by creating a network outside the courts in which politics, art were discussed. She- as many others did- encouraged people to participate in the political, social culture around them.  She believed that they "have lived with the wisest, the best, and the most celebrated men of our Times, and with some of the best, most accomplished, most learned Women of any times" *

 

Another reason that women applied to letter writing is that the familiar letter writing of the eighteenth century did not demand a difficult formula of writing. Women had chance to excel in it because they did not take the same education as men did. In a way, the format of the familiar letter did not require a formal education that women lacked.

 

As well as female self-expression on political and social issues, the letter writing was associated with female sexuality. For instance, as many scholars have already noted, Pamela's precious letters are hidden deep within her clothing. She has sewn them into her clothes. To read Pamela's secret writings, Mr B is obliged to undress her. Soon after, he marries Pamela. John Cleland's Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure is written as two lengthy letters in which Fanny Hill conveys her sexual, emotional experiences to both as a young girl and a prostitute to an unknown receiver "Madam". The content of letters is explicit and pornographic as opposed to Pamela. In both novels, epistolary mode helps audiences to see the transformation of the main characters. By tracing Pamela's letters, for instance, it is possible to see the process of her being "virtuous", "upper class" woman. Letters reveal that Pamela's transformation is shaped by the ethical norms whereas in Fanny Hill, Fanny is transformed through sexual experiences, more precisely, discovering her sexual identity.Epistolary mode also provides the experience of "eavesdropping" for the audiences.  They see/ hear the private lives as interlopers. Pamela's private reveals the lives of the upper and the lower society and social,ethical boundaries between them whereas Fanny Hill's two long letters reflects sexuality, especially female sexuality, that is oppressed by the same norms/boundaries. It is also interesting that in the novel, Fanny Hill''s innocent is always underlined despite vivid sexuality which was supposed to be "sinful" and "immoral". 

 

Additionally, during the eighteenth-century, it is also believed that when a woman corresponds with her lover through letters, they become/ get closer to be more intimate. Letters are conceived as route to the sexual intercourse. When Mr.B gets the personal correspondence of Pamela, he possesses her thoughts and her sexuality because her sexuality is identified with her thoughts and words. 

(Figure 10) Mr.B reading Pamela's first letter to her mother 

 

 In addition, here's a painting of a girl reading letter. Her cheeks were blushed while reading the letter.  In this painting, it is obvious that the act of letter writing/reading is connected to the pleasure that exposes itself through bodily reactions. In this picture, the light is consciously reflected on the girl because she is the subject and the object of the "pleasure" that makes itself visible through blushing cheeks.  However, it should be noted that the whole process of reading has been supervised by the male figure that could represent father, husband , guardian. 

(Figure 11)

 

*

Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Elizabeth Carter, 4 Sept. 1772. Huntington Library, Montagu Collection, MO 3304.

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Annotated Bibliography

 

Primary Sources

 

Addison, Joseph. The Spectator, no.9, 10 March 1711

 

Fulwood, William. (1571). The Enemy of Idleness.London 

 

Locke, John. (1812) The Works of John Locke (vol 9). London. Law and Gilbert 

 

 

Woolf, Virginia. (1932). The Common Reader Second Series. London: Hogarth 

 

Secondary Sources 

 

Anderson, Howard (ed). (1966) The Familiar Letter in the eighteenth century. Lawrence: University of Kansas Press

 

Ballaster, Ros. (2005). Fables of East: Selected Tales. Oxford; New York:  Oxford University Press

 

Bryson, Anna. (1998). From Courtesy to Civility: Changing Codes of Conduct in Early Modern England. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

 

Earle, Rebecca. (c.1999) Epistolary Selves: Letters and Letter-Writers, 1600–1945. Aldershot : Ashgate

 

Goldsmith, Elizabeth(ed). (1989). Writing and Female Voice: Essays on Epistolary Literature. Boston: Northeastern University Press

 

Nevalainen, Terttu. (2001). “Continental conventions in early English correspondence”. Towards a History of English as a History of Genres, ed. by Hans-Jürgen Diller & Manfred Görlach, 203–224.. Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag C. Wintert

 

Perry, Ruth. (c.1980). Women, Letters and the Novel. New York: AMS Press

 

Robinson, Howard. (1948). The British Post Office. Princeton University Press

 

The Art of Letter-Writing, divided into two parts. The first, containing rules and directions for writing letters on all sorts of subjects: with a variety of examples, Equally elegant and instructive. The second, a collection of letters on the most interesting occasions in life, etc. (ALW). 1762. London: T. Osborne.

 

Images

 

Figure 1:  Defoe, Daniel. The Complete English Tradesman. Edinburgh, 1839. The Making Of The Modern World. Web. 21 Jan. 2018. 

 

Figure 2: (www.oldbaileyonline.org, version 7.2, 26 February 2018), January 1785, trial of JOHN MILLS (t17850112-49)

 

Figure 3: Charles Gildon, 1706. Layton Collection 4110

 

Figure 4: Frederick Hendrik Van Hove. Mahmut the Turkish Spy. http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=1665700&partId=1

 

Figure 5:  http://catalogue.postalmuseum.org/collections/getrecord/GB813_P_118_1_A02448

 

Figure 6: Pierre Alexandre Mille. Portrait of a Woman Reading a Letter. http://www.fineartlib.info/gallery/p17_sectionid/10/p17_imageid/3662

 

Figure 7: Title page to 1763 edition of Turkish Embassy Letters

 

Figure 8: Achille Deveria. A Portrait of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw150547/Lady-Mary-Wortley-Montagu?LinkID=mp03137&role=sit&rNo=2

 

Figure 9: Adélaïde Labille-Guiard, Portrait of a Woman, 1787; Oil on canvas, 39 ⅞ x 32 in.; Musée des beaux-arts, Quimper

 

Figure 10: Francis Hayman, about 1708 - 1776, Hubert- Francois Bourguignon Gravelot, 1699 - 1773. (1742, from the sixth edition). ILLUSTRATION for 'Pamela' by Samuel Richardson. [Prints]. Retrieved from http://0-library.artstor.org.pugwash.lib.warwick.ac.uk/asset/AMICO_VA_103827073

 

Figure 11: Joseph Wright of Derby. A Young Girl Reading a Letter. http://www.abcgallery.com/w/wright/wright15.html