Reading Gossip in Early Eighteenth-Century England

This book analyzes the relation between print cultures and eighteenth-century literary and political practices and, identifying Queen Anne's England as a crucial moment in the public life of gossip, offers readings of key texts that demonstrate how gossip's interpretative strategies shaped readers' participation in the literary and public spheres.

'Nicola Parsons' Reading Gossip is an important revision of Jürgen Habermas's account of the emergence of the public sphere in eighteenth-century England. In provocative readings of works by Manley, Defoe, and Steele, Parsons demonstrates how somatic and discursive regimes of power were implicated with non-normative discourses such as gossip and scandal. Parsons has written an original book that will be of interest to literary and political historians of early eighteenth-century England.' - John Richetti, A.M. Rosenthal Professor (Emeritus) of English, University of Pennsylvania, USA

'Reading gossip involves negotiating methodological challenges. Gossip is, by definition, transient. Its natural media whispers, tea table conversations and personal correspondence are difficult or impossible for modern readers to access. It is generically awkward, related to literary forms such as the early novel and periodical literature but requiring a different kind of scholarly treatment. In Reading Gossip in Early Eighteenth-Century England, Nicola Parsons confronts these challenges to produce an original, insightful literary, political and cultural account of the reign of Queen Anne. Her book not only provides fresh perspectives on particular literary works... but also allows Parsons to tell a new story about the relationship between reading and political culture during this period.' - Rebecca Bullard, Review of English Studies

NICOLA PARSONS is a Lecturer in Eighteenth Century Literature at the University of Sydney, Australia.