In recent years there has been a renewed interest in correspondence both as a literary genre and as cultural practice, and several studies have appeared, mainly spanning the centuries between Early and Late Modern times. However, it is between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that the roots of contemporary usage begin to evolve, thanks to the circulation of new educational materials and more widespread schooling practices.
In this volume, chapters representing diverse but complementary methodological approaches discuss linguistic and discursive practices of correspondence in Late Modern Europe, in order to offer material for the comparative, cross-linguistic analyses of patterns occurring in different social contexts.
The volume aims to provide a general and solid methodological structure for the study of largely untapped language material from a variety of comparable sources, and is expected to appeal to scholars and students interested in the linguistic history of epistolary writing practices, as well as to all those interested in the more recent history of European languages.

Prof. Dr. Wim Vandenbussche, Vrije Universiteit Brussel:
Dossena's long-standing expertise in the field has enabled her to present this striking volume which thoroughly explores the tension between early standardization, ideology and everyday best writing practices as they transpired in ego-documents from the 17th through the 19th century. This collection of articles contains cutting-edge research on Late Modern English letter writing, complemented with the very best work from spearheading teams from other language communities. Any scholar working on 'literacy from below', ego-documents or historical correspondence will have to include the present volume as a key reference.