Charlotte Lennox : correspondence and miscellaneous documents /

Sch'D"urer (California State Univ., Long Beach) presents a learned, highly readable, and engaging set of all known letters relating to 18th-century English author Charlotte Lennox (c1730-1804). His copious, meticulous bibliographical research shows the long, complicated personal and literary life of Lennox, whose sex often negatively affected her ability to make a living. The preface details editorial practices and glosses terms. The introduction describes Lennox's enigmatic early life and her tragic final years, as it contextualizes her prolific work. Schurer fills in information on the publishing and legal worlds of the time (material that helps explain Lennox's actions) and also her close relationships with prominent literary mentors such as Johnson, Boswell, and Richardson, and aristocratic patrons such as the Countess of Bute and the Marquess of Rockingham. In the useful, extensive notes, the editor explains historical events and literary circumstances related to the letters and to supplementary documents in the appendixes. Readers need not have specialized knowledge or theoretical background to understand the content and value of this volume, which is easy to read and has an informal but scholarly tone. Unfortunately, the book suffers from poor copyediting. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. R. Shapiro City University of New York