Letters of Jonathan Oldstyle, Gent

Pseudonymous Essays on Early Republican New York, Theatrical Taste, and Fashionable Affectation

Washington Irving

• Publisher: e-artnow
• Year: 2015
• Topic: Literature
• eBook ISBN:
  9788026837688
• Subtopic: Literary Essays
• Index: Literature

Published in 1802, *Letters of Jonathan Oldstyle, Gent.* is a lively series of satirical newspaper sketches in which Irving adopts the persona of a conservative, urban observer to comment on New York manners, fashions, theater, literary taste, and public conduct. Written in the polished, mock-serious idiom of the eighteenth-century essay, the letters blend social criticism with comic exaggeration, revealing the tensions between inherited decorum and the self-conscious modernity of the young republic. Though slight in form, the work is important literary evidence of the period's developing American voice: it adapts British periodical satire to local subjects and anticipates the character-driven humor for which Irving became famous. Washington Irving (1783–1859) composed these pieces as a young New Yorker and published them in the *Morning Chronicle* under the pseudonym Jonathan Oldstyle. His upbringing in a prosperous mercantile family, exposure to New York's rapidly changing cultural life, and early interest in theater and belles lettres helped shape his amused yet critical perspective. The letters belong to Irving's apprenticeship, demonstrating his emerging command of persona, irony, and social observation before the mature romantic narratives of *The Sketch Book*. Readers interested in the origins of American humorous writing, early national print culture, or Irving's artistic development will find this volume especially rewarding. It offers both an entertaining portrait of Federal-era New York and a revealing glimpse of a major author discovering the literary methods that would define his career.

Table of contents

• Letters of Jonathan Oldstyle, Gent: Nine Humorous Essays on the Fashions of the Time and the New York Theater Scene (Classic Unabridged Edition)