A wide-ranging study of letter-writing in the eighteenth century, this book explores epistolatory forms and practices in relation to important areas of British culture. Organised around a series of characters, each chapter explores with depth and breadth the patterns of letter-writing and letter-reading in the period. Familiar ideas about epistolatory fiction and personal correspondence, and public and private, are re-examined in the light of alternative paradigms, showing how the letter is a genre at the centre of eighteenth-century life.