Correspondence with Lady Bradshaigh and Lady Echlin 3 Volume Hardback Set (Series Numbers 5-7)

Richardson's complete correspondence with Lady Bradshaigh, long recognised as his most important correspondent, and her sister Lady Echlin.

Samuel Richardson (Author), Peter Sabor (Edited by)

9781107145528, Cambridge University Press

Multiple-component retail product, published 17 November 2016

1200 pages, 4 b/w illus.
2.3 x 15.8 x 6.7 cm, 2.3 kg

'It is difficult to overstate the importance of the multi-volume Cambridge Edition of the Correspondence of Samuel Richardson. For the Richardson scholar, the collection, in toto, provides unparalleled insights into the candid, often surprising views of the novelist and voluminous letter-writer … the material in the letters - which ranges from musings on the politics of Hanoverian and French lace to Lady Bradshaigh's detailed guide to managing servants - seems not just 'important' but at times revelatory. That dimension, along with the insights into Richardson and eighteenth-century literary culture make the volumes an essential resource not only for scholars of the author but for scholars of the period generally. In sum, this three-volume set is a model edition-from the detailed introduction that addresses editorial challenges to meticulous annotation and rich appendices.' Catherine Ingrassia, The Scriblerian

Samuel Richardson (1689–1761), renowned English novelist and master printer, was also a prolific letter writer. The Cambridge Edition of the Correspondence of Samuel Richardson is the first complete edition of his letters. These three volumes contain his correspondence, much of it published for the first time, with two fascinating women: Dorothy, Lady Bradshaigh (1705–85) and her sister Elizabeth, Lady Echlin (1704–82). Lady Bradshaigh was Richardson's most prolific and important correspondent, challenging him about a range of issues, literary and otherwise, including his intentions for Clarissa and Sir Charles Grandison, in an iconoclastic style. Lady Echlin lived in Ireland for much of her life and provided Richardson with information on Irish issues, including the Dublin editions of his novels. The scholarly apparatus in this volume furnishes a wealth of material about these women's lives and their milieu, affording many insights into eighteenth-century English and Irish social and literary history.

General editors' preface
Acknowledgements
Chronology
List of abbreviations
General introduction
Volume 1: Richardson's correspondence with Lady Bradshaigh and Lady Echlin, 1748–53
Volume 2: Richardson's correspondence with Lady Bradshaigh and Lady Echlin, 1754–7
Volume 3: Richardson's correspondence with Lady Bradshaigh and Lady Echlin, 1758–62
Appendices: 1. Lady Bradshaigh's and Samuel Richardson's commentary on Clarissa
2. Lady Bradshaigh's and Samuel Richardson's commentary on Sir Charles Grandison, Volume 7
3. Lady Echlin's alternative ending for Clarissa
Index.

Subject Areas: Literary reference works [DSR], Literary studies: fiction, novelists & prose writers [DSK], Literary studies: c 1500 to c 1800 [DSBD], Diaries, letters & journals [BJ]