I started reading Humphry Clinker by Tobias Smollet (1771). It is not what I was expecting. It is an epistolary novel (i.e. the story is told as a series of letters). This is not a form I have come across very often. I remember reading some Henry Root books back in the 80s, in which the author sent a series of spoof letters to various newspapers, politicians and celebrities, but that was not really any sort of novel. There is a Ladies of Letters radio series, in which two middle-aged, women send rather catty letters to each other. Otherwise, I can't think of any. Humphry Clinker is a rather comic book too, so maybe they all are. One problem with it is that I have a bit of difficulty remembering how everyone relates to each other. I need to draw out a little stick diagram.
It has some nice writing in it. If I ever have reason to write a love letter, I will plagiarise Wilson's letter to Lydia Melford dated March 31. Also, how about this for a conclusion to a letter:
But I am afraid I have put you out of all patience with this long, unconnected scrawl; which I will therefore conclude, with assuring you, that neither Bath, nor London, nor all the diversions of life, shall ever be able to efface the idea of my dear Letty, from the heart of her ever affectionate
Lydia Melford
There was another interesting bit in that letter. Lydia Melford is in Bath with her family. She writes:
Hard by the Pump-room is a coffee house for the ladies, but my aunt says young ladies are not admitted, insomuch as the conversation turns upon politics, scandal, philosophy and other subjects above our capacity; but we are allowed to accompany them to the booksellers shops, which are charming places of resort; where we read novels, plays, pamphlets, and newspapers, for so small a subscription as a crown a quarter; and in these offices of intelligence (as my brother calls them) all the reports of the day, and all the private transactions of the Bath, are first entered and discussed.
I have sometimes wondered how and where people read pamphlets and essays such as Thomas Paine's The Rights of Man, Jonathon Swift's A Modest Proposal, Thomas Malthus's Essay on Principle of Population, or Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. Presumably it was at places like this book shop, which seems more like a library, only one you can talk in.