Covitz Traditional

Covitz Traditional

Mary Walker

Fall 2017

Sydney Covitz

Document

"Letters from the Duchess de Crui and Others, on Subjects Moral and Entertaining, Wherein the Character of the Female Sex, with Their Rank, Importance, and Consequence, Is Stated, and Their Relative Duties in Life Are Enforced," commonly referred to as "Letters to the Duchess de Crui" or simply "Letters," is an epistolary novel originally published in five volumes. It was first published anonymously in 1776 in England. The second and third editions were published under Mary Walker's name in 1777 in England and 1779 in Dublin respectively. The novel was also translated into German in 1776 and French in 1782.

For my experimental bibliography, I chose to display information about where, and when the novel was published as well as its intra and extradiagetic form. The pictures of letters and postal services items represent the epistolary nature of the novel. Additionally, critics often refer to "Letters" as a novel of ideas rather than plot. These ideas, or observations on human life, are bookended and framed within the context of letters, so I chose to frame my project within the bounds of modern, letter-related images. The letter with the name and address information crossed out signifies the anonymous publication of the first edition of Walker's work, and the dates and volume numbers for each early edition of the publication are inside an outline of the country in which they were published. There is also an image containing five of the originally published novels. Form is one of the most critical and core aspects central to any novel, and traditional bibliographies completely ignore that emphasis. Finally, next to the picture containing the priority mail sticker, I included a picture of the five volumes as they were published anonymously in 1776.

Critics in The Critical Review, an 18th century literary magazine that reviewed popular novels of the time, described how Walker's work used letters as a framework to expound anecdotes, bits of advice on how to live, and insights into human existence. I used pictures of letters and modern transportation of mail, to literally frame my experimental bibliography—depictions of information expounding conceptions about Walker's work.