Letterworlds in late nineteenth-century France : the epistolary culture of Mallarmé, Morisot, Van Gogh, Cézanne, and Zola / Susan Harrow.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Harrow, Susan, Author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

French letters--History and criticism.

French letters.

Letter writing, French--History--19th century.

Letter writing, French.

Painters--France--Correspondence.

Painters.

Artists--Correspondence.

Artists.

Authors, French--19th century--Correspondence.

Authors, French.

Letters--History and criticism.

Letters.

Letter writing--History.

Letter writing.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (x, 264 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, United Kingdom ; New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, 2025.

Summary:

Today's world of e-mails, text messages, and social media posts reminds us that letter-writing is an age-old practice that has continually re-invented itself culturally and contextually, connecting individuals and creating communities that may be local or global, personal or public, purposeful or playful, actual or virtual. Yet we have barely begun to explore why letter-writing matters: how it teaches us important lessons, across historical, cultural, and geographical boundaries, about being human. Letterworlds turns to the past - to the late nineteenth century - in order to explore questions of crucial relevance to our present: questions of subjectivity, solitude, and community, physical and mental wellbeing, ethics, and the everyday. Using a fresh holistic and thematic methodology, Susan Harrow examines how such issues suffuse and animate the letter-writing of a group of writers and artists whose contributions are seminal in the development of Western aesthetic modernity: Mallarmé, Morisot, Van Gogh, Cézanne, and Zola.

Contents:

Unlocking Capacity

The Embodied Letter

Solitude and Community

Ethics and the Everyday

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 20 Oct 2025).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-009-61901-2

1-009-61899-7

1-009-61902-0