An audience of one : Dorothy Osborne's letters to Sir William Temple, 1652-1654 / Carrie Hintz.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hintz, Carrie, 1970- author.

Contributor:

Osborne, Dorothy, 1627-1695.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Women--Great Britain--17th century--Sources.

Women.

Great Britain--Social life and customs--17th century--Sources.

Great Britain.

Osborne, Dorothy, 1627-1695--Correspondence.

Osborne, Dorothy.

Temple, William, 1628-1699--Correspondence.

Temple, William.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (214 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Toronto, [Ontario] ; Buffalo, [New York] ; London, [England] : University of Toronto Press, 2005.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

When first published in 1888, the letters of Dorothy Osborne to William Temple - written between 1652 and 1654 - created a kind of cult phenomenon in the Victorian period. Osborne and Temple, both in their early twenties, shared a romance that was opposed by their families, and Osborne herself was almost constantly under surveillance. Osborne's letters provide a rare glimpse into an early modern woman's life at a pivotal point, as she tried to find a way to marry for love as well as fulfil her obligations to her family.Combining historical and biographical research with feminist theory, Carrie Hintz considers Osborne's vision of letter writing, her literary achievement, and her literary influences. Osborne has long been overlooked as a writer, making a comprehensive and thorough analysis long overdue. While the nineteenth-century reception of the letters is testament to the enduring public fascination with restrained love narratives, Osborne's eloquent and outspoken articulation of her expectations and desires also makes her letters compelling in our own time.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Dorothy Osborne's Letters

1. Dorothy Osborne's Courtship

2. An Audience of One: Dorothy Osborne as a Letter Writer

3. Shared Privacies: Reading in the Osborne-Temple Courtship

4. Imagining the Couple: Triangularity and Surveillance

5. 'Dearer to mee than the whole world besy'ds': Illness and Emotional Attachment in Osborne's Letters

Afterword: A 'Round and Populous' World

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

1-281-99476-6

9786611994761

1-4426-7077-0

OCLC:

244767877