LETTERS

Abstract

<p>OVER the period 1640-1714 the prose letter was a tremendously pervasive and varied print form. Examples range from serious to frivolous, witty to quotidian, pedagogical to entertaining, historical to contemporary reportage, private to political, exemplary of virtue/conduct to scandalous, and reverential classical imitation to ephemera. It is an academic commonplace to talk about the republic of letters, an ideal realized in manuscript and disseminated in print, and that concept usefully highlights the connection between epistolary form and a proto-democratic social, intellectual, and political ethos. The letter is the genre of community par excellence: always involving a dialogue between at least two writers, and often situating that dialogue within a broader social context. It was firmly associated with the modelling of social relationships of all kinds and with theorizing what binds individuals together in sociable enterprise. However, the inclusive spirit of the republic of letters was not upheld by all epistolary modes. </p>