What is it about?
Letters from England is a travel narrative, written in the form of a journal account by a fictional Spanish visitor to England during 1802 and 1803, that was originally published in 1807. In blurring the boundaries of fact and fiction, Southey has produced a complex work of literary merit – there is no other prose work of its kind during the Romantic period. Southey’s commentary is shrewd and lively, and provides the reader with a close-up view of early nineteenth-century culture and society. Among the topics covered are: provincial customs; political intrigues; theatre and sports; religious sects; poverty and criminality in urban centres; scientific and medical progress; Georgian London; social change; and the state of the army and navy. The book's wide-range of topics and interests, as well as its description of daily life in England, gives us an intriguing insight into the world of the Romantics.
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Why is it important?
The book is a rich source of information on the social history of the early nineteenth century. In addition, the extensive editorial apparatus explains topical references, literary and cultural allusions, and includes translations of foreign language material. It provides references to Southey’s correspondence, facilitating greater understanding of the text, the influence of Southey’s friends and correspondents on its composition, and accurately identifies the sources he drew on in writing it. The fact that sections of Letters from England have been frequently cited and anthologised demonstrates its utility as a resource for the period. This new scholarly edition enables a full understanding of its socio-historical context, authorial intentions, and the relationship between this text and other works by Southey and his contemporaries. It intends to assist in the current trend for reappraising Southey’s eminence as a literary figure and to highlight the limitations of categories such as poet, historian or journalist that have been previously applied to him. Because although Southey was a prolific and proficient writer in all these fields, we now know that he was also an amusing prose writer. Southey’s centrality to Romantic-period literature and its textual and cultural practices is now evident, but this edition adds an extra dimension in showing how the established perceptions of genre and form within which he and his contemporaries worked were challenged in a debate over form and function that makes this one of his most innovative works.
Perspectives
One of the reaons I wanted to publish a new edition of this book was because I found it such a useful and interesting text for teaching the Romantic period to students. I have found the visitor’s view of London and his responses to the metropolis very helpful in teaching my MA module ‘Literary Londons’. The Lake District sections explicate contemporary aesthetic theories of the picturesque and sublime. The intertextuality of the book, identified in my research into Southey’s correspondence, identifies a range of correspondents and sources that illuminate the ‘bookmaking’ activities of nineteenth-century authors. In addition, the bifocal perspective of the experienced English author and the naive Spanish tourist are ideal for teaching students on courses about narratology, its structures and functions and use of focalisation. Letters from England is an essential source for the historical context of the period, against which many canonical and lesser-known texts can be read. This will facilitate greater understanding of the social, political and religious background of the Romantic period, and illuminate the attitudes, beliefs and concerns of its authors and their characters.
Dr Carol Jennifer Bolton
Loughborough University
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This page is a summary of: Letters from England, May 2016, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.4324/9781315629063.
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