Professor Henry Summerfield (1956, English) publishes From Family to Philosophy: Letter-Writers from the Pastons to Elizabeth Barrett Browning

University of Victoria Libraries have published From Family to Philosophy: Letter-Writers from the Pastons to Elizabeth Barrett Browning, by Exeter alumnus Professor Henry Summerfield (1956, English). The book traces the lives and outlooks of distinguished Britons of the Renaissance, as revealed in their correspondence. The subjects range from the fierce satirist Jonathan Swift to the long-lived, all-observing Horace Walpole and from the poet and freedom fighter Lord Byron to the tormented but brilliant Jane Carlyle. Accompanying the self-portraits these writers unwittingly create are their many sketches of their contemporaries. Moreover, the views they express on forms of government, feminism, literature, theology, religious toleration, and other topics serve to relate their lives to the progression from the Age of Reason through the Romantic period to the Victorian era.

The publication is open access, and can be found here.