ASECS bound

Heading to Williamsburg on the train tomorrow for the annual meeting of the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies. I am on an interesting panel called "How to Read an Eighteenth-Century Page" - this is my page (borrowed from ECCO - need to get in to office early this morning to make a better handout/scan from the reproduction of the 1729 Dunciad Variorum!):

My father had to go into hospital last week in Philadelphia, and is still there (hopefully he'll get out early next week). I was there briefly over the weekend to visit, but am feeling very guilty for not being on-site to help out with stuff. It is the nature of the school year that March and April are particularly demanding - I will hope to be able to go down when he's released and settle him back in at home....

A three-year phenomenon

A highlight for me from the eighteenth-century studies conference was this bit from Anne Stevens' talk about microgenres, the "Thinks-I-To-Myself" novel:

1811 Edward Nares, Think’s-I-to-Myself. A Serio-ludicro, Tragico-comico Tale, Written by Think’s-I-to-Myself.
1812 I’ll Consider of It! A Tale, in Three Volumes, in Which Thinks I to Myself is Partially Considered.
1812 Barbara Hofland, Says She to Her Neighbour, What? By an Old-Fashioned Englishman.
1812 Edward Nares, I Says, Says I; a Novel. By Thinks-I-to-Myself.
1813 It Was Me, a Tale, by Me, Who Cares for Nothing or Nobody
1813 She Thinks For Herself.