Journal to Stella

The Journal to Stella offers a detailed commentary on Swift's experiences in London in the last years of Queen Anne's reign, and substantial evidence of his evolving relationship with Esther Johnson, or Stella. This new edition seeks for the first time both to situate the text alongside Swift's other works, and to draw on recent scholarship on the period to offer commentary and annotation, which will place it within its original political, historical and cultural contexts. It offers transcriptions of the manuscript portion of the letters, based on the latest digital image analysis techniques. These will represent the text for the first time, complete with his purposeful obliterations. In addition to a new critical introduction and appendices, there is also a biographical appendix derived from recently available resources from the History of Parliament, Irish History of Parliament and ODNB projects.