The Loiterer - Softcover

James Austen

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0461654237 ISBN 13: 9780461654233

Publisher: HardPress, 1789

Synopsis

The Loiterer by James Austen. The Loiterer is a satirical eighteenth-century periodical consisting of letters and editorials published in Oxford, collecting correspondents who petition the titular Loiterer for advice on misfortune, manners, love, marriage, and social pretensions. Across multiple volumes (begun in 1789), the pieces present self-portraits of men and women from rural gentry and urban society, recounting failed loves, financial reversals, and moral reflections. Through humorous monologues and epistolary narratives, the authors critique fashionable Oxford- and London-based life, the chasm between Country and Town, and the vanity of contemporary pretensions. The reader encounters rustic characters such as Rueful, Rusticus, and Cecilia, each voicing complaints and counsel about marriage, parental authority, and social mobility, while the editor—identified as James Austen—frames the work as a moral and literary exercise in style, virtue, and self-examination. The Loiterer remains a sharp, entertaining satire on manners and the consequences of fashionable ambition.

Edition details

• Publisher: HardPress
• Publication date: 1789
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0461654237
• ISBN 13: 9780461654233
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320