About the book: Reading other people's letters, like reading
private diaries, offers thrilling and unexpected glimpses into the lives
of others, and it is partly this guilty pleasure we take in such
literary eavesdropping that makes The Oxford Book of Letters so
compelling. More than three hundred letters spanning five centuries
chronicle the affairs of correspondents from Elizabeth I to Groucho
Marx, from politicans to poets, from the famous to the unknown.
But
whether the writers are educated or barely literate, whether their style
is polished and witty or stumbling and artless, these letters display
an immediacy and intimacy not shared by any other form of writing. Here,
for example, is Benjamin Disraeli, confiding to Lady Bradford the
secret of his purchase of the Suez Canal for England ("not one of the
least events of our generation"), and Charles Dickens to his son, Henry,
regarding finances ("You know how hard I work for what I get, and I
think you know that I never had money help from any human creature after
I was a child").
Among the most moving letters are those from emigrants
to America, Australia, and South Africa, describing the hardships they
endured and the resolution with which they faced their new worlds. The
Kermodes have included both isolated missives as well as exchanges of
letters between regular correspondents, where familiarity and an ongoing
saga add to the fascination. The editors provide a context for the
letters, and unobtrusive notes. In an age where communication is instant
and ephemeral, this volume celebrates the glory of the written word,
and what may well be a dying art form.
Seller inventory #07247192