English Literature

A delightful illustrated guidebook to Cambridge aimed at the new undergraduate and his family, as well as the tourist, with plentiful information on the town and its facilities in addition to a description of the university. Benefactors are listed for the main public buildings such as the Senate House, the Public and New Library and the Botanic Garden. Colleges are then described in some detail, with information on their foundation, notable buildings and art works, benefactors and eminent past scholars. The finances and development plans are also included for some colleges, such as for Trinity Hall (’an Hall surpassing All’) which ‘stands out of the town upon the banks of the river... this college is intended to be greatly enlarged by the addition of two wings or buildings, extending from the present college to the river, so as to leave the view open to the country’. It is also noted that this development is to be funded by a benefaction from John Andrews, ‘which being bequeathed in 1747, to come to the college after the death of two sisters, cannot be long before it falls’.
This is a reissue of the first edition, published in 1796, with the ‘Useful Tables’ on pp. i-iv on cancelled leaves, bearing the date 1797, in place of 1796. These tables contain information on the names of the office holders and professors, term dates and militia officers. The frontispiece is a folding map entitled ‘Plan of Cambridge 1791’ and is signed ‘S.I. Neele scuplt. 352 Strand London’. The ten engraved plates all depict landmarks of the university: the Senate House, two of Clare Hall (College), two of Kings College, Queen’s College, Catherine Hall, two of Trinity College and one of Emanuel [sic] College.

Two scarce English translations of Italian devotional works, bound together in an attractive seventeenth century binding. Giovanni Bona was a Cistercian cardinal from Northern Italy known for his scholarship and simple manner of life. The first work in this volume is his Manuductio ad coelum, first published in 1658 and first translated into English in 1672. It has often been compared to Thomas a Kempis’ Imitation of Christ, on account of the simplicity of the style in which the doctrine is explained. It was a hugely popular work, seeing a dozen editions by the end of the century and being translated into Italian, French, German, Armenian and Spanish as well as English. The second work in the volume is a translation of Bona’s Principia et documenta vitae Christianae, a comparable work which focuses on the principles of Christian conduct. The translation is usually ascribed to Luke Beaulieu.
The first work has an additional title-page, engraved, ‘Manuductio ad coelum, or a guide to eternity’, by Frederick Hendrick van Hove (1629?-1698). The second work has an engraved frontispiece depicting Christ during his passion, also by F. H. van Hove.

The first appearance of the collected poems of Josiah Relph, including his poems in the Cumberland dialect. The collection was posthumously published and was edited by Thomas Sanderson, who supplied the biography of Relph in the preface (pp. viii-xvi). A lengthy glossary is also included as well as a contents leaf at the end. With a long list of over 30 pages of subscribers, including a final page listing ‘Names of Subscribers come to hand since printing the above List’.
‘Relph’s poetical works were published posthumously in 1747 and 1798. A wider, national circulation of a few of his poems was achieved by their inclusion in Thomas West’s A Guide to the Lakes, 1784, which was read by Wordsworth, Southey, and early nineteenth century poets. Similarly, in the twentieth century, his dialect poetry is included in anthologies of Lakeland verse, such as those of the poet Norman Nicholson (The Lake District: an anthology, 1977). Relph’s best verses are in the dialect of his native county; they are on pastoral subjects, with classical allusions’ (ODNB).

A very attractive pair of critical texts on Shakespeare’s characters, uniformly bound (numbered as volumes one and two) and in very fresh condition, from the library of the Marquess of Headfort.

A fascinating and influential work on spinsterhood, female sexuality and the role of the unmarried woman in society. Although Hayley - whose friends included notable women writers such as Elizabeth Carter, Anna Seward and Charlotte Brooke as well as leading male literary figures such as Blake, Cowper and Southey - refers to himself as ‘a Friend to the Sisterhood’ and sets out to defend ‘Old Maids’, yet his work is consistently derogatory, leaving the archetypal figure of the crabby maiden aunt reinforced by his faint praise. ‘It is my intention’, he writes, ‘to redress all the wrongs of the autumnal maiden, and to place her, if possible, in a state of honour, content, and comfort’ (Introduction, p. xvi). However, his intention falls far short of the mark as he unwittingly recommends unmarried women to a servile and self-effacing role, presumes a strict correlation between virginity and the unmarried state and generally implies them to be an inferior subsection of an already subservient sex.

First published by Thomas Cadell in 1785, this was a widely read work, with second and third editions following in 1786 and 1793. This is the only Dublin edition. It is an important source for contemporary attitudes to a host of interesting minor characters in the fiction of the age.

An attractive copy of Samuel Derrick’s selection of English poetry, arranged according to subject, from ‘Abbey’ to ‘Zimri’, through ‘Folly’, ‘Genius’, ‘Gentlewoman’ (and, later, ‘Woman’), ‘Kensington Garden’, ‘Marriage’ and ‘Pleasure’. Derrick was an actor turned writer from Dublin whose most interesting works include a translation of Cyrano de Bergerac’s A Voyage to the Moon, 1753 and an edition of Dryden’s works published in 1760. After the failure of his acting career he continued to work closely with the theatre, making various verse and prose contributions and publishing a successful commentary, The dramatic censor; being remarks upon the conduct, characters, and catastrophe of our most celebrated plays, London 1752. On first arriving in London, he made the acquaintance of Boswell, who later regretted his earlier friendship with ‘this creature... a little blackguard pimping dog’ (Boswell’s London Journal, ed. Potten, 1950, p. 228). Johnson, when asked who was the finer poet, Derrick or Christopher Smart, famously replied, ‘Sir, there is no settling the point of precedency between a louse and a flea’ (Boswell, Life of Johnson, ed. Hill and Powell, 1934, IV, 192 - 193).
In the preface, Derrick argues that as English boasts the greatest poetry of any modern language, it is an injustice to the nation to neglect it and he believes that the lack of this sort of anthology proves that it has been neglected. He allows that some similar works have been published, for example Byshe’s Art of Poetry, but these have tended to concentrate on translations from the classics: ‘but these are not the perfections of Dryden and Pope: it is Homer and Virgil we compliment in our admiration; the only merits of our great countrymen that occur, are classical knowledge, and talents for smooth versification. It is in their original works, their imitations of nature, and not of men, that we must look for that excellence in our most celebrated writers, which reflects honour upon the nation, and helps to exemplify its literary character’ (p. ix-x).
‘The various topics in these volumes are arranged in alphabetical order; so that they may be easily found, and the authors name is affixed to each. Here the man of knowledge and erudition will find an index to refresh his memory; the preceptor proper themes to exercise and enrich the mind of his pupil; and knowledge, supported by ornament, will be insensibly conveyed to the young gentleman’s heart, who shall reap instruction from the amusement... The editor hopes the work may be also an agreeable present to the ladies, many of whom boast a more refined taste than the generality of the other sex’ (p. x - xi).

Presentation copy of this limited edition of Christopher Thacker’s new translation of Voltaire’s Candide, commissioned and elegantly published by Thacker’s great friend, Michael Mitchell, at the Libanus Press. When Thacker was working on this, he and his wife, Thomasina, used to make regular visits to the Mitchells in Marlborough in order to discuss the illustrations with Angela Barrett. ‘His widow Caroline and I’, writes Thomasina, ‘could hear peals of laughter as they decided which incidents best reflected Voltaire’s wit and naughtiness, the latter so happily matching their own. Angela was well known and admired for illustrating books for children so this was a new excitement and one she clearly relished’.

Thacker’s new translation is printed in parallel text with Voltaire’s original text: ‘A folio production using a dual text: the original 18th-century French of Voltaire and a new English translation by Christopher Thacker, Voltaire scholar and writer on gardens and the 18th century’. The stunning illustrations are by Angela Barrett and comprise a suite of 14 pen and ink drawings. With an introduction by Thacker and ‘a full set of original sources revised for the modern reader’.

This is a limited edition of 125 copies, 100 standard copies and 25 special copies, set in 14pt Monotype Fournier, printed letterpress on 180gms Lana Royal rag paper. This is one of 25 special copies offered with set of the Angela Barrett prints on Zerkall paper in a folder, preserved in a cloth-covered solander box. This copy is marked ‘Presentation Copy’ under ‘This is Copy no.’ on the edition statement leaf, and has been inscribed by Christopher Thacker in pencil on the verso of the half-title: ‘P/7 copy --- pas mal, Christopher’.

A scarce versification of one of Cicero’s most famous essays, printed by Samuel Richardson. The author, fellow of Oriel College and a canon of Wells Cathedral, explains in his preface that he was inspired by Denham’s earlier translation of the same text: ‘About three years ago, lighting on Sir John Denham’s translation of that celebrated piece (Tully’s book De Senectute) and, not without some wonder and pity, seeing that great genius fall so much below the spirit of the Roman orator, in his English metre; I was so vain, as to think a kind of paraphrase of the same essay, would succeed easier and better: and therefore, at my leisure hours, when severer studies became tedious, I undertook to build a poem (if it is worthy to be call’d so) on Tully’s most exquisite model; taking special care to follow his exalted sentiments, as closely as I could, and not presuming to add much of my own, unless where I am fond of spinning out a Ciceronian thought to the utmost’.

Charlotte Byersley is nineteen when the novel opens and has just lost her mother. She has been brought up quietly by her parents and although she has had a reasonable education, she knows little of the ways of hte world. Her father, anxious to supply her with a woman’s care, naturally chooses very badly and finds her a companion in the giddy and superficial Miss Arabella Seward, whose ‘outward behaviour was polish’d, specious and insincere’ and who had ‘no other aim but to secure a rich husband’. Shortly after Arabella’s arrival, Charlotte meets the son of her father’s friend, young Welford, recently down from Cambridge but the course of true love does not, of course, run smoothly. All is resolved in time, however, after a series of adventures involving them and many other characters. One unusual incident is that the heroine develops smallpox, is extremely ill with the disease but recovers fully except for the loss of her complexion. This she mourns greatly on her recovery as she assumes that with her lost looks, she has also lost all hopes of being loved by Welford. Abandoned in her illness by the worldly Arabella, Charlotte finds a new confidante and nurse in Mrs Bootle, who persuades her to believe that Welford ‘had too much good sense to place his affection meerly on a set of features, or fine complexion’ (p. 111).
‘To say the best of this performance, it contains nothing indecent or offensive to the chaste and modest ear; but, at the same time, it must be confessed, the reader of taste will here find nothing to excite and keep up his curiosity, engage his attention, or interest his heart. The author has involved about half a dozen couple of insipids, in certain uninteresting adventures and difficulities, out of which they are extricated at last; -- and all is conducted in the modern way, without energy, humour, or spirit’ (The Monthly Review, XII, April 1755, p. 388).
Despite this review, this is an interesting novel which addresses issues of female education, parenting and the importance of female appearance. This is a scarce Dublin reprint which is designated as, and printed in, two ‘volumes’ and four parts, but with continuous pagination and register and bound in one volume. The first volume concludes on p. 107, ‘The End of the Second Book’, there is a separate title-page to ‘Vol. II’ and then the story continues with ‘Book the Third’ on p. 111. The novel concludes on p. 221 with ‘The End of the Fourth and Last Book’ and there is a final page of bookseller’s advertisements on p. 222. First published by Dodsley earlier in the same year (ESTC t70728, at BL, CUL, Bodleian, Duke, Huntington, Indiana, Chicago, Penn and Yale), this is often listed as anonymous but has been attributed to John Collet, an attribution followed by James Raven and based on that of the British Library copy.

A very unusual novel that may in fact be an autobiographical memoir, with the ‘written by himself’ of the title page being, contrary to the literary practice of the time, true. This is the only edition of this provincially printed novel charting the life and adventures of a feckless but charming rogue. Printed in Liverpool, in a single volume in fairly large octavo, an unusual format for a novel, it tantalisingly combines an arch style with the possibility that its claims to being a factual account - that old turkey - might in this case actually be true. Whatever the answer to that tricky question, the romps and romantic escapades of the hero make for a very good read as we follow him through Manchester, Dublin and Liverpool to London.
The Liverpool publisher, Charles Wosencroft, appears not to have published much, at least not much that has survived. Apart from his own work, The Liverpool Directory, for the year 1790, containing an alphabetical list of the gentlemen, merchants, traders, and principal inhabitants, of the town of Liverpool, ‘printed and sold’ by himself in 1790, his other publications were reprints of well-known and popular works. His first publication was Samuel Ancell’s A circumstantial journal of the long and tedious blockade and siege of Gibraltar, published by subscription, Liverpool 1784, of which ESTC lists nine editions printed between 1783 and 1786. This was followed by Lawrence Harlow’s The conversion of an Indian, Liverpool 1785, a best-seller first published in London in 1774 and finally an edition of Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, Liverpool 1782. The present novel is the exception to the rule: no other edition appears to have been printed anywhere and it appears to elude research: it is even one of the scantest entries in the Garside, Raven & Schöwerling’s bibliography.
With a humorous dedication ‘To his most Potent, Puissant, High and Mighty Serene Highness, The Lord Oblivion’ which begins, ‘Voracious Sir, Without leave, I presume to dedicate the following labors of my pen to you, not like a number of my contemporary brethren, whose works involuntarily fall to your share; no, revered sir, I step out of the common tract of writers, who pretend to consign their works to immortal fame, which, only mistaking, are in reallity [sic] meant for you; but as a benefit, if conferred with an ill grace, loses much of its intrinsic value, so these, my lucubrations, [as no doubt all revolving time will give them into your possession] will come with a much better appearance, presented to you, thus freely, from myself’.

A scarce translation of a philosophical novel by Wieland, Geheime Geschichte des Philosophen Peregrinus Proteus, first published in Leipzig in 1790-91. Wieland adapts the classical Greek setting by placing it within a quasi dream sequence - the narrator has the ability to listen to the souls the dead - where he is able to examine the life and spiritual development of the hero, the Cynic philosophier, Peregrine Proteus as he looks back on his life after his famous public suicide. The narrator recounts a conversation between Peregrinus and Lucian which takes place in Elysium. The novel owes much to Wieland’s earlier Geschichte des Agathon, 1767, which is celebrated as the first Bildungsroman or coming of age novel.
‘The original author treads with unequal, and sometimes unsteady, steps, in the track of the abbé Barthelemi, and attempts to describe Grecian manners and Grecian systems. The ancient veil, however, imperfectly covers modern ideas; and, though a part is antique, modern decorations often expose the fallacy. The confessions, as the title imports, are in Elysium. Peregrine Proteus (not the son of Neptune) meets Lucian in Elysium, and recounts a series of adventures, scarcely probably, with descriptions neither antique, appropriate, nor always decent. In short, the English reader would have lost little had the Confessions retained their original Teutonic garb. The Agathon of Wieland is again introduced: he should have been condemned to everlasting oblivion’ (Critical Review, November 1804, pp. 359-360).
With a dedication to Prince William Frederick of Glocester [sic], signed I.B. Elrington and a note to the subscribers, signed ‘The Translator’, although no subscribers list is known. A four page preface, ‘To the World’, printed in italics, is signed ‘I.B.E.’ and dated London, March 1st 1804. This scarce translation was first published by Bell; this is a remainder issue published by the Minerva Press, with new half-titles and title-pages. An earlier translation of Wieland’s novel, by William Tooke, was published under the title Private History of Peregrinus Proteus the Philosopher, London, Joseph Johnson, 1796.

A scarce edition of this popular pocket dictionary in unusual square format. The preliminary leaves contain an advertisement, dated May 27th 1787, a short preface, ‘A Grammatical Introduction to the English Tongue’ and finally ‘A Table of Words that are alike, or nearly alike, in Sound, but different in Spelling and Signification’. The interesting appendices include ‘the most usual Christian Names of Men and Women’, which makes an amusing comparison with the primary school roll call of today, ‘A Succinct Account of the Heathen Gods and Goddesses, Heroes and Heroines, &c. deduced from the best Authorities’ and a list of all the cities, boroughs, market towns and villages in England and Wales, which confirms that Salisbury’s market days have remained unchanged.
Happily unrestored, this is a sublimely tatty copy, that leaves little of its manufacture to the imagination.

An attractive set of this elegant poetical compilation by Richard Graves, author of the highly successful picaresque novel, The Spiritual Quixote, 1773. The two volumes were published four years apart, and the second volume is more commonly found with the second edition of the first volume which was brought out with it. The first volume is dedicated to Lady Head, wife of Sir Thomas Head, of Langley in Berkshire, and the second volume is dedicated to Mrs Warburton ‘as a slender tribute of gratitude for many and important favours received from the family at Prior-Park’. The first volume begins with an eight page Apology - ‘some apology is undoubtedly requisite for publishing at this time of day Madrigals in form’ - in which Graves gives an account of his poetical development, charting influences from Voltaire to his friend William Shenstone. He concludes by stating that, if any of his poems had been immoral, he would sooner have consigned them ‘to eternal oblivion’ than have printed them, even though he fears their destination to humble: ‘to be exposed on stalls... or to encrease the trash of circulating libraries’. The preface to the second volume explains that much of the contents were written for a poetical society at ‘B- E-n’, viz. the literary salon hosted by Anna Miller at her house in Batheaston. Although a number of important writers attended the salon, including David Garrick and Anna Seward, its pretentious customs and Miller’s own mediocre poetry caused it to be widely mocked. ‘This society, I am aware’, writes Graves, ‘has been exposed to the undeserved insults of envy and disappointment: and even to the affected sneers of some fastidious critics of a more respectable character’, by which he probably means Dr. Johnson.
The volumes are attractively illustrated, with engraved frontispieces, vignettes and tail-pieces. The frontispiece to volume one depicts a bucolic scene illustrating a quotation from Virgil, engraved by Joseph Collyer (1748-1827); the two further engraved vignettes in the text are also by Collyer. The frontispiece to volume two, featuring another bucolic scene, is by Charles Grignion (1721-1810). This shows a flighty lady playing the tamborine (possibly Euphrosyne herself, the goddess of mirth and one of the three graces) with three ladies dancing in the background. The half-page engraving on the final leaf (also by Grignion, after C.W.B.) depicts an antique urn decorated with laurels: presumably this refers to the vase used at the Batheaston salon, which was a key feature in the lambasting of the society. Purchased by Anna Miller after it was dug up at Frascati in 1759, the vase was decorated with laurels and placed on an altar, where guests were invited to approach, in order to place their poetical compositions in the vase.

A presentation copy of this attractively produced volume of songs printed by Mary Mayler, who ran one of Bath’s most successful bookshops, lending libraries and publishing houses. A note on the verso of the title-page states that the volume was privately printed: ‘These songs are all published with Music, but being the Property of various Persons, the Author has not the power of publishing them collectively. This Volume has therefore been printed for private circulation’.
Produced at the height of Bayly’s fame when his reputation as lyric poet and songwriter made him a popular feature at fashionable soirées in Bath, at one of which he met his future wife, Helena Beecher Hayes. This privately produced volume was evidently intended as a gracious compliment for favours received: this presentation copy is one of a number of presentation copies extant (unfortunately the inscription on the title-page is hard to read: Mrs Davison? Mrs Davinay?).
The volume includes many of his most famous songs, such as ‘I’d be a butterfly born in a bower’ (p. 28), composed on his wedding journey at Lord Ashdown’s villa near Southampton. The notes at the end of this work include a Latin version of that song composed by Francis Wrangham. 1829 also marked the year that Bayly moved to London and embarked on his theatrical career, one at which he enjoyed a fair success and which saw him through financially when the combined blow of loss of income from his Irish estates and the collapse of his coalmining investments hit him in 1831 and it became necessary for him to support his family by writing.

First book edition of a popular humorous work originally published in eighty-two weekly numbers from February 1st 1681 to August 22nd 1682. A bestselling Restoration periodical, it contains a series of jests, riddles and satirical dialogues on politics, government, Whigs, Popery, foreign affairs, the penny post and a multitude of ephemeral topics of the day. Persistently attributed to Thomas Flatman, though there are poems included that are not entirely consistent with his style; there may well have been some collaboration involved.

A delightful guide to the care of English trees written by a young landowner who only a few years previously, at the age of 21, had won a medal for planting 40,000 trees on his recently inherited estate in Cheshire. The work is presented in 24 chapters on different varieties of deciduous and evergreen trees, followed by an appendix on raising trees from seed. Dedicated to ‘the president and gentlemen’ of the Manchester Agricultural Society and with a short preface in which Astley states that his work includes the opinions of authors ‘esteemed for their knowledge of the various species of trees’ and offers this work in the hope that ‘these gleanings and humble hints may be of some trifling service’.
Francis Astley seems to have been an interesting character: as well as being an enlightened landlord, he was an amateur artist and a poet, author a number of poems including Varnishando: a serio-comic poem, 1809 and The Graphomania: an epistle to John Harden, London 1809. He appears, however, to have been dogged by ill-fortune throughout his adult life, losing his first born child in a tragic accident. He was declared bankrupt in 1817 and the books from his library at Dunkinfield Lodge were sold at auction in Liverpool later that year. Scandal surrounded his death and there were accusations of murder as recounted in this biographical sketch:
‘John Astley died in 1787 leaving as his heir his young son, Francis Dukinfield Astley (1781-1825). In 1793 his widow married again, but the family continued to live at Dukinfield Lodge, and Francis seems to have taken up his responsibilities as landowner before coming of age, since as early as 1802, when he was 21, he was awarded a medal for planting 40,000 trees. Francis was a young man of great promise: he was rich, relatively good looking, artistic (he was a published poet and amateur artist), and had a deep concern for the welfare of his tenantry and estate. In 1812 he married and the following year he bought the Fell Foot estate in the Lake District, where he could enjoy fabulous views over Windermere. But tragedy was never far away. His first born son died when just a few weeks old from a fall from a window, and in his efforts to develop his estate and protect his tenants from the worst effects of the depression in trade occasioned by war with France he over-reached himself financially, and in 1817 he was declared bankrupt. However, the discovery of coal on his estate restored his fortunes without the loss of his property, and after many barren years his wife presented him with a son and heir in 1825. But just a few months later he died in his sleep while visiting his brother-in-law, Thomas Gisborne, in Derbyshire. There were accusations of murder, made in a scandalously public way at Astley's funeral, but an independent inquiry which Gisborne instigated to clear his name found no evidence of foul play and declared the death to be 'by visitation of God'. Some doubt must remain, however, as there seems to have been no autopsy, and because just a year later Gisborne married Astley's widow, his deceased wife's sister’ (Nicholas Kinglsey, ‘Landed Families’ blog).

First edition of Beckford’s wonderful letters from the Continent, written ‘in the bloom and heyday of youthful spirits and youthful confidence’ (Advertisement). The first volume focuses on his two visits to Italy, in a total of 31 letters, but it also contains thoughts on visits to Germany and the Low Countries, as well as to the French Alps, including a brief description of the Carthusian monastery la Grande Chartreuse. The second volume has 34 letters about Portugal and 18 letters about Spain.

'Had it been published as intended in 1783, instead of as late as 1834 in a revised version under the title Italy, with Sketches of Spain and Portugal, it would have been hailed as an ice-breaker, preparing the way for the nineteenth century's stylistic eclecticism' (Timothy Mowl, William Beckford, Composing for Mozart, 1998, p. 92).

First edition of Beckford’s wonderful letters from the Continent, written ‘in the bloom and heyday of youthful spirits and youthful confidence’ (Advertisement). The first volume focuses on his two visits to Italy, in a total of 31 letters, but it also contains thoughts on visits to Germany and the Low Countries, as well as to the French Alps, including a brief description of the Carthusian monastery la Grande Chartreuse. The second volume has 34 letters about Portugal and 18 letters about Spain.

'Had it been published as intended in 1783, instead of as late as 1834 in a revised version under the title Italy, with Sketches of Spain and Portugal, it would have been hailed as an ice-breaker, preparing the way for the nineteenth century's stylistic eclecticism' (Timothy Mowl, William Beckford, Composing for Mozart, 1998, p. 92).

This scarce Dublin edition is one of three distinct English language editions of Voltaire’s wonderful conte philosophique to be published in 1768, each with a different collation and no mention of a translator’s name. The other editions were published in London by S. Bladon and in Glasgow by Robert Urie. Voltaire’s tale, which first appeared in 1767, is one of the great literary exemplars of the noble savage: the corruption and absurdities within French society are shown in stark contrast to the nobility of the eponymous hero, who reacts with simple directness to everything, with comic and tragic results.

A very handsome copy of this scarce edition of Mary Wortley Montagu’s seminal travelogue, first published in 1763. The preface, by Mary Astell (1666-1731), was composed in 1724 for Montagu’s manuscript letters.
‘Lady Mary Wortley Montagu’s husband was appointed ambassador to the Porte in 1716, and she accompanied him to Constantinople. During her sojourn in Turkey she recorded her observations and experiences in a journal (destroyed after her death) which provided material for her actual letters to her friends, of which only a few survive, and for the series of 52 letters which she composed a few years after her return to England. These are not actual letters, though headed and dated close to the dates of real letters. The form is partly fiction but provides the substance of her life abroad and her opinions on Turkish life and customs ‘ (Blackmer).