Elizabeth Carter:Selected Writings
Abstract
Poet, essayist, translator, classical scholar, and voluminous letter-writer Elizabeth Carter (1717–1806) is now confirmed as one of the most erudite and versatile writers of the eighteenth century. Working across literary forms and for almost the entire century, Carter’s writing is admired as both rigorously intellectual and gregariously sociable. Her works are deeply engaged in traditions of poetry and the essay, but by addressing subjects from domestic scenes and social behaviours to speculations on astronomy and the proper Stoic attitude to life’s hardships, she takes these forms in new directions as an innovative woman writer pushing the boundaries of what was thought suitable to her sex. If Carter’s reputation is established, however, it is on limited lines: based on a small sampling of only her best-known works, fixed in a narrow cultural context, and largely confined to readers with specialist knowledge of her social circle. There is now an opportunity to reshape how we read and understand her work as an author new to the canon and one of the most quietly audacious women writers of the eighteenth century. This 21st-Century Oxford Authors edition of the Selected Writings of Elizabeth Carter takes up that opportunity, aiming to become the standard edition of Carter’s work. Introducing Carter to a new generation of students and critics, and expanding the available materials for those already familiar with her writing, the edition will offer a thorough selection of Carter’s poetry, essays, translations, and letters, historically situated in her long lifetime and wide social scene, but with an emphasis on emerging and potential critical directions.