This book defines literature of the eighteenth century as a literature written and received as public conversation. Moyra Haslett discusses and challenges conventional ways of reading the period, particularly in relation to ideas of the public sphere. Key texts (including The Dunciad, Gulliver's Travels and Pamela) are read through the context of their imitations and counter-fictions, and the new genres of the periodical, published letters and the novel are discussed as textual equivalents of coterie culture.