Barford Abbey, a Novel: In a Series of Letters

Gunning, Mrs. (Susannah), 1740？-1800Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.0

Word count: 291K words
Chapters: 30

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Barford Abbey, a Novel: In a Series of Letters by Mrs. GunningAuthor: Gunning, Mrs. (Susannah), 1740?-1800,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Aug 28, 2004

Editor's review

Barford Abbey is an epistolary novel by the late-18th-century English woman writer Susannah Gunning, published as a free ebook by Project Gutenberg. The narrative is carried entirely by letters, continuing the epistolary tradition established by Richardson, which foregrounds characters' inner lives and emotional exchange; readers piece together relationships and events letter by letter, enjoying a pleasure akin to detective reading. As a long-neglected classic English novel, its value lies chiefly at the documentary and literary-historical level: it offers a view of how the epistolary form was used in the 18th-century English novel, of a woman author's narrative strategies, and of contemporary concerns with marriage, property, and social decorum. It suits supplementary reading in courses on the history of the English novel, or slow, attentive reading by those interested in 18th-century English epistolary literature. The electronic edition is the original English text without modern annotations, requiring some English reading ability and knowledge of the historical context.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers studying the 18th-century English novel and epistolary literature
Literature lovers with good English seeking classic English originals
Readers interested in women writers and little-known texts of literary history
Teachers and students needing free public-domain English texts as course supplements

Not a good fit for

Readers wanting fast-paced plots or modern popular fiction
Beginners with limited English who need annotations and translations
Readers who want only a synopsis rather than the original epistolary text

Reading tips

Begin by reading one complete letter to grow familiar with 18th-century English letter conventions and polite formulas.
As you read, list writers and recipients and draw a relationship chart to clarify the narrative threads.
For unfamiliar words, infer from context first; look them up after finishing a chapter to avoid breaking the rhythm.
Read alongside works on 18th-century British social history or studies of the epistolary novel.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is the electronic edition in Chinese or English?

Project Gutenberg provides the original English text, labeled as English, with no Chinese translation. Readers need some English reading ability and ideally a knowledge of 18th-century British society and literature to follow the forms of address, etiquette, and narrative hints in the letters.

What is special about reading an epistolary novel?

An epistolary novel advances through letters, so information comes from different characters' perspectives and is often subjective or incomplete. Readers must note who is writing, to whom, and when, and assemble the full picture themselves—this participatory quality is the genre's distinctive appeal.

Will the lack of annotations and introduction hinder understanding?

To some extent. The Gutenberg edition is the public-domain original and generally includes no modern editorial notes. 18th-century spelling, punctuation, and social forms of address differ from contemporary English; readers can use online dictionaries and materials on 18th-century British history, or read alongside literary histories that provide introductions.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Gunning, Mrs. (Susannah), 1740？-1800 Author · British · 1740–1800

Mrs. Gunning (née Susannah, 1740?–1800) was an English novelist of the late eighteenth century, though reliable public information about her life is limited. Her representative work is the epistolary novel Barford Abbey, a Novel: In a Series of Letters, which follows the tradition of sentimental fiction, weaving its narrative through letters and dwelling on delicate emotional portrayal and moral feeling. According to available sources, she also wrote other sentimental works, including Memoirs, and was active in the English literary world at the end of the eighteenth century. Her style belongs to the prevailing sentimental novel of the period, using the intimate voice of letters to reveal her characters' inner fluctuations and circumstances, balancing emotional description with moral instruction. Overall, her work offers a concrete example of late eighteenth-century English sentimental fiction and epistolary narrative.