English Letters and Letter-Writers of the Eighteenth Century

Download or read book English Letters and Letter-Writers of the Eighteenth Century written by Howard Williams and published by . This book was released on 2015-07-26 with total page 622 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from English Letters and Letter-Writers of the Eighteenth Century: With Explanatory Notes For the most part, the Literature of Letter-Writing, properly so-called, falls within quite modern times. From Antiquity have come down to us several Collections of Letters; but, with two or three notable exceptions, such only in name, they are chiefly moral or political essays, descriptive pieces, and rhetorical declamations. In Greek Literature, one of the earliest of them bears the magic name of Plato. Modem criticism, generally, holds them to be forgeries; and their intrinsic merit or interest is not so high as to make their genuineness or spuriousness matter of very great concern. Equally spurious, but more entertaining, are the Letters of the Scythian or Tartar prince, Anacharsis, the enterprising traveller of the Sixth Century, B.C. Next, in order of time, come the so-called Letters of Alkiphron (of the Second or Third Century of the Christian era), the most entertaining and valuable of the species. As pictures of Athenian life and manners, of the New Comedy period, high interest attaches to them; and for elegance of style, and picturesqueness of description, they have a deserved repute. Not much later, probably, were composed the Love-Letters of Aristaenetus. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."