Synopses & Reviews
This book offers the first thoroughgoing literary analysis of William Cobbett as a writer. Leonora Nattrass explores the nature and effect of Cobbett's rhetorical strategies, through close examination of a broad selection of his polemical writings from his early American journalism onward. She examines the political implications of Cobbett's style within the broader context of eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century political prose, and argues that his perceived ideological and stylistic flaws--inconsistency, bigotry, egoism and political nostalgia--are in fact strategies designed to appeal to a range of usually polarized reading audiences.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 238-246) and index.
Table of Contents
'Introduction: change and continuity; Part I. The Creation of Cobbett: 1. Early writings 1792-1800; 2. A version of reaction; 3. Oppositional styles 1804-1816; 4. Representing Old England; Part II. Cobbett and his Audience: 5. Dialogue and debate; 6. A radical history; 7. Tracts and teaching; 8. Constituting the nation; Notes; Bibliography; Index.\n
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