… category of the ‘enlightened’ was also synonymous with readers in general and proficiency in this activity served as a status symbol. However, this somewhat elitist group, encompassing the wealthy, avid practitioners who in one way or …
… 9 The epistolary novel no longer aspired to provide authenticity and instruction to a genre that was to consolidate its status. Its aim above all was to provide a window onto a society that was being corroded from within. The epistolary …
Correspondence | Cosmopolitanism | Fiction | France | Freemasonry | Republic of Letters