"In recent years, there has been a remarkable resurgence of interest in women's letters, for they tell us much about women's and men's lives. The Lydia Clerke letters, which form the basis of this book, are no exception. Including 31 letters written by nine different people, they render an intimate portrait of English life during the second half of the eighteenth century." "Meticulous transcriptions of the letters are accompanied by interpretive essays which provide historical and biographical contexts. Illuminated by extensive archival research, the letters give new insight into the importance of female friendship, the predicament of the woman intellectual, the sexual vulnerability and power of the young unmarried woman in aristocratic society, and the economic and emotional instability of wives even in companionate marriage. The letters also touch on the volatile world of eighteenth-century Indian and on the courage and cruelty of the men who built the British Empire." "While most of the letter writers are unknown, four achieved prominence - the author Charlotte Lennox, the Reverend Thomas Winstanley, the navigator Charles Clerke, and the bluestocking Susannah Dobson. This book presents new perspectives on Lennox's and Winstanley's domestic lives, Clerke's ambiguous encounters with indigenous peoples, and Dobson's mysterious sexuality." "This book will appeal to eighteenth-century scholars as well as to scholars in women's and cultural studies. It will also be of interest to postcolonial, queer, and other literary theorists."--Jacket.