About this book
Old Friends, Epistolary Parody by Andrew Lang is a dainty, mischievous romp through the drawing-rooms and study desks of Victorian fiction, where familiar characters exchange letters and literary rivalries are playfully unmasked.
Part essay, part epistolary spoof, Lang’s collection—originally assembled from pieces in the St. James’s Gazette—marries learned criticism with affectionate satire. Through invented correspondence and prefatory notes, he teases out the imagined encounters of novelistic personae, riffs on authorial habits, and reflects on the nature of friendship in fiction. The tone is erudite yet genial: scholarly observations sit cheek by jowl with comic pastiche, and readers encounter a lively portrait of the 19th-century literary scene as seen through the eyes of a witty critic. Themes of intertextuality, authorial personality, and the social life of characters are handled with lightness and precision, making the work as much a study of literature as a comic performance.
Ideal for lovers of literary humor, students of Victorian letters, and anyone who enjoys short nonfiction that combines criticism and parody. This audiobook will appeal to listeners who relish clever narration, bookish wit, and the pleasure of seeing beloved fictional figures meet off the page.
