Spring/Summer 2005 - University of Toronto Press Publishing

LITERARY STUDIESAn Audience of OneDorothy Osborne’s Letters to Sir William Temple,1652–1654Carrie HintzWhen first published in 1888, the letters ofDorothy Osborne to William Temple – writtenbetween 1652 and 1654 – created a kind of cultphenomenon in the Victorian period. Osborne andTemple, both in their early twenties, shared aromance that was opposed by their families, andOsborne herself was almost constantly under surveillance.Osborne’s letters provide a rare glimpseinto an early modern woman’s life at a pivotalpoint, as she tried to find a way to marry for love aswell as fulfil her obligations to her family.Combining historical and biographicalresearch with feminist theory, Carrie Hintz considersOsborne’s vision of letter writing, her literaryachievement, and her literary influences. Osbornehas long been overlooked as a writer, making acomprehensive and thorough analysis long overdue.While the nineteenth-century reception of the lettersis testament to the enduring public fascinationwith restrained love narratives, Osborne’s eloquentand outspoken articulation of her expectations anddesires also makes her letters compelling in our owntime.Carrie Hintz is an assistant professor in theDepartment of English at Queen’s College, CityUniversity of New YorkEnglish Biography in theSeventeenth CenturyA Critical SurveyAllan PritchardAlthough biography is one of today’s most flourishingliterary genres, its early history has attractedmuch less attention than that of other forms, aneglect that is especially apparent in the case of theformative period of English biography, the seventeenthcentury. This new work by Allan Pritchardfills the scholarly void by providing a wide-rangingand comprehensive survey of this period’s biographicalwritings.After charting the growth of seventeenth-centurybiographical writing, Pritchard explores theways in which traditional forms of religious biographyand lives of princes and other secular figureswere adapted to, and transformed by, the crises andrevolutions of the period. He then considers thedevelopment of less traditional biographical typesand analyses the emergence of a ‘new biography,’concerned essentially with individuality and withprivate as well as public life.Examining a rich range of texts, EnglishBiography in the Seventeenth Century is a survey of afield important for both literary and wider culturalreasons.Allan Pritchard is a professor emeritus in theDepartment of English at the University ofToronto.Approx. 280 pp / 6 x 9 / May 2005Cloth ISBN 0-8020-8833-3 £32.95 $50.00 EApprox. 320 pp / 6 x 9 / June 2005Cloth ISBN 0-8020-3889-1 £40.00 $60.00 E19