University Press Copublishing Division / Lehigh University Press
Pages: 542
•
Trim: 6⅜ x 9¼
978-1-61146-246-3 • Hardback • August 2020 • $163.00 • (£127.00)
978-1-61146-247-0 • eBook • August 2020 • $50.00 • (£38.00)
Harriet Kramer Linkin is Emerita Distinguished Professor of English at New Mexico State University.
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
List of Letters
Introduction
Editorial Matters
Brief Chronology
Tighe Family Tree
The Letters of Mary Blachford Tighe 1786-1810
Biographical Notes
Bibliography
Index
About the Editor
This edition assembles for the first time in print the letters of Mary Tighe, Ireland’s best known and most influential Romantic-era woman poet. With Linkin’s skillful and comprehensive annotations, the letters open new horizons on Tighe’s extraordinary life and work by drawing us into the poet’s extensive social, political, and artistic milieu. This edition is unquestionably the definitive resource for Tighe’s correspondence. It will be of foundational importance for scholarship on Tighe, for Irish studies generally, and for the continuing reconsideration of the nature and scope of Romanticism in the British Isles.
— Stephen Behrendt, University of Nebraska
With a detailed introduction, extensive annotation, biographical portraits and a bibliography, The Collected Letters of Mary Blachford Tighe gathers for the first time the correspondence of one of Ireland's most distinguished Romantic writers. Comprising more than 160 letters, Harriet Kramer Linkin's superb new edition opens new perspectives on Tighe's life, her authorial career, patterns of composition, and psychological development as the author of Psyche and Selena. This volume forms a fascinating and authoritative archive of historical records for all scholars of Romantic literature and culture, and is sure to enhance understanding of this extraordinary, influential, yet elusive writer.
— Nicholas Roe, Bishop Wardlaw Professor of English Literature, The University of St Andrews, Scotland
In this scrupulously edited and carefully annotated collection of over 150 letters, Harriet Kramer Linkin brings to life the world of Irish author Mary Tighe. These letters reveal an intimate and often playful network of family, friends, and fellow writers in the two decades before the Regency. Tighe could be frank in her letters about difficult topics, from managing a dangerously intoxicated friend to fending off sexual harassment or describing the grisly details of political unrest. She also sighs for the creature comforts of clean sheets and a pile of books, as well as over a very attractive waiter. This volume will be invaluable to those interested in Tighe’s literary works but also provides a remarkably unfiltered view of her historical moment.
— Julia M. Wright, Professor of English & Dalhousie University Research Professor, Dalhousie University