Epistolary Fiction in Europe 1500-1850 (review)

REVIEWS ciple for this character who "plays" out his survival skills in a particular society. In this "game" Yovanovich discovers a situation in which "picaresque world view, humour/laughter and play meet and open a door to a complex human social reality" (12). In studying the three novels the author revels in terse analysis that is, if I may be allowed the pun, "playful." Yovanovich's intellectual and analytical skills go in many directions; the reader is attacked, so to speak, by an aggressive intellect. Not only are there engaging insights into the Spanish masterpiece but also into the Latin American works that are studied in depth. The works ofCortázar and Skármeta are in themselves very complex and often defy definition or categorization; they exist on many levels of intellection. Still, Yovanovich penetrates their worlds focusing not on play alone but play in the contexts of sexuality, gender, and politics. One should not be surprised by the chronological gap between a sixteenth-century Spanish work and two products ofthe Latin American boom. Yovanovich insists on numerous areas ofcommonality there. I believe that along with La Celestina Yovanovich should have considered Boccaccio as a precursor in melding the humorous with the serious, as well as for other examples ofplay, e.g., the second tratado. While Yovanovich is to be credited with offering the reader a coherent profile ofplay through the years, I sense a problem in labelling many things as "play." Are there any areas in which there is no play? Yovanovich seems to find it everywhere or anywhere, for that matter. There should be some limit, I would think, to play, where it begins and where it ends. Other than these reservations, Yovanovich has written a strong book, quite effective in its task and purpose and an eye-opener in placing some aspects ofLatin American literature in a picaresque context. Joseph V. RicapitoLouisiana State University THOMAS O. BEEBEE. Epistolary Fiction in Europe 1500-1850. Cambridge : Cambridge UP, 1999. 277 pp. Without question, Thomas O. Beebee's new book on European epistolary fiction will be indispensable for students and scholars who have been waiting for a study that finally tackles both the formal nature ofepistolary novels and their polymorphous position within European cultural production. The research that has gone into this book is remarkable. Beebee directly challenges the Protean quality ofa genre that "crystallizes social relationships" (3), having shifted from the "master narratives which no longer functioned effectively," to the petits-récits (Lyotard) of everyday life (6). Beebee's account spans 350 years and different sub-genres ofthe epistolary—from letter-writing manuals to the "fine art ofhandwriting analysis" (134). By centering on the dynamic and dispersed nature ofthe genre, Beebee credits it with the unique ability to render transparent the mentalités ofits practitioners. In the richly-documented chapter "Ars dictaminis: the letter-writer in the machine," we are introduced to letter-writing manuals as "epistolary machines," extraordinary tools that amply contributed to the building of a literate society. Inspired by Foucault's "technology ofthe self (42), Beebee sees these manuals not as instruments ofenlightenment, but as means ofcontrolling teachers and students. He detects in the "apparent dysfunction in the circulatory mechanism" of correspondences a rich process at work: while it "cathects [. . .] the libidinal energy otherwise directed at 'proper' human and social objects," letter-writing drives the reader to invest his or her energy onto letters that eventually become as erotically Vol. 26 (2002): 168 THE COMPAKATIST charged as lovers—they are "wept upon, kissed, eaten, beaten, caressed" (50). Juan de Segura's Processo de cartas (1548), Poe's Purloined Letter, Eliza Haywood's collection Epistlesfor Ladies (1749), Derrida's The Postcard, and Ferrante Pallavicino 's // corriere svaligiato (1641) are cases in point. All of these works, with their rifled mailbags-motif, open up for the reader a wide spectrum ofsocial types —madams and robbers, Jacobites and Jews, hermaphrodites and ambassadors. One ofthe book's great strengths is its meticulous understanding ofgender in the construction ofthe epistolary novel. In one of its best chapters, "The lettered woman as dialectical image," Beebee speaks ofthe inevitable "contradictions" suffered by the lettered woman, who, as Benjamin put it, is both...