The Bishop of Exeter Versus Benjamin Hoadly: Pamphlets, Controversy, and the Uses of Epistolarity in Restoration England

This essay discusses the use of epistolarity in a pamphlet controversy that played out over a published sermon by the Bishop of Exeter and a critical response by Benjamin Hoadly. While the political, religious, and social aspects of the resulting pamphlet war are substantial, the present article dis...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal for eighteenth-century studies Vol. 47; no. 1; pp. 45 - 58
Main Author Bayer, Gerd
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Hatfield Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.03.2024
Subjects
18th century
early‐modern prose fiction
epistolary writing
history of the novel
Novels
Restoration period
truth and fiction
United Kingdom > UK
England
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Summary:This essay discusses the use of epistolarity in a pamphlet controversy that played out over a published sermon by the Bishop of Exeter and a critical response by Benjamin Hoadly. While the political, religious, and social aspects of the resulting pamphlet war are substantial, the present article discusses how the form of the letter was employed by the various authors who contributed to this controversy. It argues that the writers drew on readerly expectations about letters that reveal much about the role played by epistolarity within literary culture in Restoration England, in particular, how letters negotiated a contested space between factuality and fictionality that was shaped also by contemporary notions of novelistic writing.
ISSN:1754-0194
1754-0208
DOI:10.1111/1754-0208.12927