1. Courses
  2. Epistolarity in the Eighteenth Century
Photograph of vintage writing tools arranged on a wooden surface, including a white feather quill, sealed envelopes with wax stamps, and a smoking incense stick in a carved holder. The composition highlights historical communication methods with warm lighting emphasizing textures of paper, wax, and wood.

Epistolarity in the Eighteenth Century

ENGL 841
Graduate
Fall 2026
3 Units
In-person
3

Evaluation will be based on your performance across four categories:

  1. seminar (30%);
  2. letter assignment (20%);
  3. term paper (30%);
  4. and participation in discussion (20%). 

You’ve got mail! The trope of a bag of letters opened to the reader’s gaze is surprisingly common in eighteenth-century literature. This course looks at a selection of eighteenth-century letters, letter-writing manuals, and fictions and dramas that depend upon letters to examine what makes epistolary form so fascinating. Texts will include works by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Samuel Richardson, Tobias Smollett, and others.