The Synge Letters

Reviews / Votes

Here, suddenly I felt, was the most extraordinarily revealing and sympathetic historic document that I had encountered in 25 years of research .... I reached the end of the correspondence with the feeling that I had entered and understood a culture in the same way as if I had read one of the best epistolatory novels on the 18th century ... thanks to the high and calculated literary skills of Edward Synge, by turns severe and admonitory, relaxing and teasing, modulating his style to the occasion and to the growing maturity of his young daughter.'- Toby Barnard 'A major publishing event. The Synge Letters are an unprecedented new source of information for mid-18th-century social history.I should like to quote the whole of this wonderful book.'- Victoria Glendinning, The Spectator 'Shows a father-daughter relationship more vividly than any number of monographs on affective relationship in the eighteenth century and casts a new light on the subject, the power of the whole series ... is very moving, and always absorbing. One is forcibly struck by the vivid, wide-ranging and sympathetic tone of the writer and - yet more - by the importance of the correspondence's implication for many areas dealing with eighteenth century mentality and attitudes, not only in Ireland ... as one reads on (and I find them hypnotically readable) a whole world comes into focus, domestic at first but stretching its boundaries wider and wider ... anyone with historical imagination would be captivated by the correspondence.'- Roy Foster 'Compelling and valuable.An exceptional insight into the quotidian; a fascinating perspective on the Anglo-Irish elite at its zenith; and a wonderful opportunity to expore an evolving human relationship in a superbly presented and lovingly edited testament of the pleasure of history.'- James Kelly, The Irish Times 'This is a truly wonderful book. It provides a more vivid and memorable insight into life in Ireland in the middle of the 18th century than any other document I know in manscript or in published form.[it] is nothing less than a minor masterpiece. Buy it, read it and enjoy it.' - Andrew Carpenter, Irish Independent Here, suddenly I felt, was the most extraordinarily revealing and sympathetic historic document that I had encountered in 25 years of research .... I reached the end of the correspondence with the feeling that I had entered and understood a culture in the same way as if I had read one of the best epistolatory novels on the 18th century ... thanks to the high and calculated literary skills of Edward Synge, by turns severe and admonitory, relaxing and teasing, modulating his style to the occasion and to the growing maturity of his young daughter.'- Toby Barnard 'A major publishing event. The Synge Letters are an unprecedented new source of information for mid-18th-century social history.I should like to quote the whole of this wonderful book.'- Victoria Glendinning, The Spectator 'Shows a father-daughter relationship more vividly than any number of monographs on affective relationship in the eighteenth century and casts a new light on the subject, the power of the whole series ... is very moving, and always absorbing. One is forcibly struck by the vivid, wide-ranging and sympathetic tone of the writer and - yet more - by the importance of the correspondence's implication for many areas dealing with eighteenth century mentality and attitudes, not only in Ireland ... as one reads on (and I find them hypnotically readable) a whole world comes into focus, domestic at first but stretching its boundaries wider and wider ... anyone with historical imagination would be captivated by the correspondence.'- Roy Foster 'Compelling and valuable.An exceptional insight into the quotidian; a fascinating perspective on the Anglo-Irish elite at its zenith; and a wonderful opportunity to expore an evolving human relationship in a superbly presented and lovingly edited testament of the pleasure of history.'- James Kelly, The Irish Times 'This is a truly wonderful book. It provides a more vivid and memorable insight into life in Ireland in the middle of the 18th century than any other document I know in manscript or in published form.[it] is nothing less than a minor masterpiece. Buy it, read it and enjoy it.' - Andrew Carpenter, Irish Independent