This study delineates a theory of epistolary lyric that refutes historical notions of a siecle sans poesie. Julia De Pree argues that monophonic, epistolary texts written during the Ancien Regime both reflect and resist the Classical legacy and at the same time anticipate the nineteenth-century prose poem. De Pree illustrates her theory of epistolary lyric through readings in the historical canon (Montesquieu, Diderot, Rousseau, Laclos) but emphasizes the contributions of the epistoliere Francoise de Graffigny, Isabelle de Charriere, and Marie-Jeanne Riccoboni. She argues...