Diana G. Barnes is an Honorary Research Associate in the Department of History and Classics, University of Tasmania, Australia.

'In this engaging and well researched book, Diana Barnes analyzes a set of documents that reflect on, as well as exemplify, the genre of the ’familiar letter.’ Exploring early modern English epistolarity as a rich blending of theory and practice, she illuminates the myriad ways in which printed letters became discursive sites for significant cultural innovation. In particular, she illuminates how English letter writing practices impacted politically consequential debates about gender, class status, confessional identity, sovereignty, friendship, love, and the shifting boundaries between openness and secrecy in an emergent-and fractured-national community.' Margaret W. Ferguson, University of California, Davis 'Epistolary Community in Print, 1580-1664 is an original and welcome addition to the burgeoning scholarship on early modern letters, uncovering some lesser-known works and throwing new light onto the familiar. By revealing the gender politics embedded in, and challenged by, the genre of the epistle, Diana Barnes makes a real contribution to our understanding of early modern letters.' Alan Stewart, Columbia University, USA and the Centre for Editing Lives and Letters, UK 'Barnes, while never neglecting an opportunity to advance her thesis, also seeks to cover a great deal of ground in relation to historical events and to sixteenth- and seventeenth-century ideas about empathy, sovereignty and gender, civility, friendship, religion, class, genre and decorum, and materiality... a valuable contribution to debates about the history of the familiar letter in England and its role in the creation of the republic of letters.' Times Literary Supplement ’Epistolary Community in Print, 1580-1664 is an excellent study for students and academics interested in the early modern letter-writing tradition. Barnes’s focus on feminine epistolary discourse gives her book welcome depth. Her book is also an exciting read. Each subsequent chapter follows a l

• Angel Day's rhetoric for "any learner" in The English Secretary (1586 and 1599). Feminine poetical letters: Michael Drayton's England's Heroical Epistles (1597). Letters of feminine friendship at the court of Henrietta Maria: Jacques du Bosque's The Secretary of Ladies (1638). Epistolary battles in the English Civil War: The Kings Cabinet Opened (1645). Epistolary Restoration: Margaret Cavendish's letters. Conclusion: new republics of letters.

Diana G. Barnes is an Honorary Research Associate in the Department of History and Classics, University of Tasmania, Australia.

'In this engaging and well researched book, Diana Barnes analyzes a set of documents that reflect on, as well as exemplify, the genre of the ’familiar letter.’ Exploring early modern English epistolarity as a rich blending of theory and practice, she illuminates the myriad ways in which printed letters became discursive sites for significant cultural innovation. In particular, she illuminates how English letter writing practices impacted politically consequential debates about gender, class status, confessional identity, sovereignty, friendship, love, and the shifting boundaries between openness and secrecy in an emergent-and fractured-national community.' Margaret W. Ferguson, University of California, Davis 'Epistolary Community in Print, 1580-1664 is an original and welcome addition to the burgeoning scholarship on early modern letters, uncovering some lesser-known works and throwing new light onto the familiar. By revealing the gender politics embedded in, and challenged by, the genre of the epistle, Diana Barnes makes a real contribution to our understanding of early modern letters.' Alan Stewart, Columbia University, USA and the Centre for Editing Lives and Letters, UK 'Barnes, while never neglecting an opportunity to advance her thesis, also seeks to cover a great deal of ground in relation to historical events and to sixteenth- and seventeenth-century ideas about empathy, sovereignty and gender, civility, friendship, religion, class, genre and decorum, and materiality... a valuable contribution to debates about the history of the familiar letter in England and its role in the creation of the republic of letters.' Times Literary Supplement ’Epistolary Community in Print, 1580-1664 is an excellent study for students and academics interested in the early modern letter-writing tradition. Barnes’s focus on feminine epistolary discourse gives her book welcome depth. Her book is also an exciting read. Each subsequent chapter follows a l

• Angel Day's rhetoric for "any learner" in The English Secretary (1586 and 1599). Feminine poetical letters: Michael Drayton's England's Heroical Epistles (1597). Letters of feminine friendship at the court of Henrietta Maria: Jacques du Bosque's The Secretary of Ladies (1638). Epistolary battles in the English Civil War: The Kings Cabinet Opened (1645). Epistolary Restoration: Margaret Cavendish's letters. Conclusion: new republics of letters.