Correspondence with George Cheyne and Thomas Edwards

First scholarly edition of Samuel Richardson's correspondence with two prominent men of the eighteenth century, Thomas Edwards and George Cheyne.

Samuel Richardson (Author), David E. Shuttleton (Edited by), John A. Dussinger (Edited by)

9780521822855, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 19 December 2013

552 pages, 2 b/w illus.
23.6 x 15.5 x 3 cm, 1.03 kg

Samuel Richardson (1689–1761), among the most important and influential English novelists, was also a prolific letter writer. Beyond its extraordinary range, his correspondence holds special interest as that of a practising epistolary novelist, who thought long and hard about the letter as a form. The Cambridge Edition of the Correspondence of Samuel Richardson is the first complete edition of his letters. The present volume contains his correspondences with Dr George Cheyne and Thomas Edwards, linked not only by their pronounced medical content but also by their generally unguarded character. An early admirer of Richardson's Pamela (1740–41), Cheyne elicits some of the novelist's most significant statements concerning his own literary practice and tastes. Edwards, an astute literary critic as well as notable sonneteer, draws Richardson into expressing some remarkable insights as a close reader of poetry and prose.

General editors' preface
Chronology
General introduction
Richardson's correspondence with George Cheyne
Richardson's correspondence with Thomas Edwards
Appendices.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: fiction, novelists & prose writers [DSK], Literary studies: c 1800 to c 1900 [DSBF], Literary studies: c 1500 to c 1800 [DSBD]