… off from some of her compatriots during the tensions between France and the United Kingdom (she had nevertheless kept up epistolary contact with Penelope Pennington and Ruth Barlow). 8 . Cited by M. Ray Adams, ‘Helen Maria Williams and the … the disappearance of society sociability, and so on. While sociability was central to Letters as a whole, the epistolary form had evolved significantly over the course of the violence and the trials of the Revolution. From volumes … ( Sketches of the State of Manners and Opinions in the French Republic , 1801), Williams remained faithful to the epistolary model . 24 Although she wrote mainly on political, military and religious , 25 subjects, she also gave an …