The Secret History in Literature, 1660–1820

Rachel Carnell editor Rebecca Bullard editor

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Cambridge University Press

Published:11th Jul '19

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The Secret History in Literature, 1660–1820 cover

This collection explores for the first time the importance of secret history in the literature of the long eighteenth century.

Secret histories alarmed and thrilled readers across Europe and America in the eighteenth century with claims of exposing state secrets and court intrigues. Offering new readings of key texts, this collection of essays by leading researchers demonstrates the importance of the genre within the political and literary culture of the Enlightenment.Secret history, with its claim to expose secrets of state and the sexual intrigues of monarchs and ministers, alarmed and thrilled readers across Europe and America from the mid-seventeenth to the mid-nineteenth century. Scholars have recognised for some time the important position that the genre occupies within the literary and political culture of the Enlightenment. Of interest to students of British, French and American literature, as well as political and intellectual history, this new volume of essays demonstrates for the first time the extent of secret history's interaction with different literary traditions, including epic poetry, Restoration drama, periodicals, and slave narratives. It reveals secret history's impact on authors, readers, and the book trade in England, France, and America throughout the long eighteenth century. In doing so, it offers a case study for approaching questions of genre at moments when political and cultural shifts put strain on traditional generic categories.

'While it might be an exaggeration to say that there are two distinct histories of the secret history, there seem to be at least two styles of writing about it. The first is literary, and this tradition is best exemplified by Rebecca Bullard and Rachel Carnell's remarkably wide-ranging and insightful collection of essays, The Secret History in Literature, 1660–1820.' Brian Cowan, Huntington Library Quarterly

ISBN: 9781316604908

Dimensions: 228mm x 150mm x 16mm

Weight: 1600g

294 pages