Charles Watkins and Ben Cowell (Eds), Letters of Uvedale Price (The 68th Volume of the Walpole Society), Leeds, Maney Publishing, 2006, 359 pages, ￡57 hardback

摘要

Until now, lacking a biography or published collection of letters, Uvedale Price has been a shadowy figure whose books on the picturesque, so widely discussed at the time, have been of real interest only to those studying aesthetics and the concept of taste in the long eighteenth century. This volume of Price's letters to four friends, and the biographical essay, contribute greatly to our knowledge of polite society and its intellectual and practical concerns, including estate improvement. It sheds new light on the genesis of Price's books and on the discourse and controversy surrounding the philosophical concept of pic-turesqueness, and - perhaps of most interest to readers of this journal - the practicalities of creating and maintaining picturesque landscapes.