Synopsis
Gossip About Letters And Letter-Writers by George Seton is a comprehensive survey of epistolary culture, tracing the history of letters from Scriptural and Roman correspondence to modern private and official communication. Seton surveys how letters reveal social manners, gender differences in style, the evolution of post, and the art of letter-writing. He organizes the work into sections on Old English Letters, Scottish Correspondence, and Published Correspondence of Eminent Individuals across France, England, Germany, and Italy, with discussions of love letters, business letters, juveniles, and the letters of commonalty. The book includes numerous illustrative specimens—Anne Boleyn’s last letter, Madame de Sévigné’s witty epistles, Pope and Swift, Walpole’s voluminous missives, Cowper’s intimate notes, and witty laconic notes—demonstrating how tone, structure, and signature convey character, social status, and emotion. It also comments on handwriting, superscripts, post scripts, and the modern postal system's influence on style, rhythm, and individuality. Appendices compile notable letters and extracts, with observations on the manners of crossing, clerical letters, and the rise of begging letters. Throughout, Seton treats epistolary writing as a mirror of society, a social map of manners, and a record of human communication.
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