Sophie Coulombeau
LightNews LightNews
banner
sophiecoulombeau.bsky.social
Sophie Coulombeau
@sophiecoulombeau.bsky.social
2.9K followers 620 following 1.2K posts
Senior Lecturer in English Literature & Creative Writing. Burneys, book history, 18thc reading habits & naming practices. Novelist. Maker of radio. Mother & carer. Yotam Ottolenghi superfan.
Posts Replies Media Videos
sophiecoulombeau.bsky.social
Hello! Happy to oblige but I’m not sure what you mean by posting on zero. You mean this abstract, right?
November 21, 2025 at 5:27 PM
sophiecoulombeau.bsky.social
Closing up this v interdisciplinary special issue is Yoko Iyeiri, with an analysis of how Hamilton's enormous archive shows linguistic change, specifically in relation to the development of the adverb. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Abstract This article explores adverbs in The Mary Hamilton Papers, examining the factors which may influence correspondents' decisions as to whether or not to use the -ly suffix (e.g. exceedingly/exceeding). While the use of -ly forms is generally well established in the dataset, tendencies differ depending on the specific adverb. This study investigates some factors determining the choice of forms — e.g. the nature of the word that the adverb modifies — arguing that linguistic factors are more influential than extra-linguistic factors in the data examined. Mary Hamilton's own writings exhibit a slightly delayed adoption of -ly compared to the overall trend in the entire dataset, suggesting possible linguistic conservatism that warrants further research.
November 21, 2025 at 1:48 PM
sophiecoulombeau.bsky.social
Now Anne-Christine Gardner w/ 'Self-Corrections as Indexes of Social Relationships: Observations From Mary Hamilton's Correspondence With Frances Burney (1783–1789)'. Anne & I take complementary approaches to the same material: IMHO it's a fun conversation! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Abstract This article explores how social relationships are developed and conveyed through correspondence, with a particular focus on self-corrections in the surviving letters from Mary Hamilton (1756–1816) to Frances Burney (1752–1840). The findings show that the more closely connected the writer feels with the recipient, the more self-corrections are deemed socially acceptable. Engaging in interdisciplinary dialogue with Coulombeau's (this issue) assessment of Hamilton and Burney's complex and evolving relationship, this essay underlines the importance of self-corrections for the study of handwritten documents as well as social relationships and networks in the past.
November 21, 2025 at 1:44 PM
sophiecoulombeau.bsky.social
Then, we have @voloshkova.bsky.social with 'Mary Hamilton, Manuscript Poetry, and the Bluestocking Network: Promoting Hannah More, Ann Yearsley, and Anne Hunter', investigating Hamilton as promoter of poetry. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Abstract This article considers Mary Hamilton's agency and influence in promoting poetry within and beyond Bluestocking circles during the 1780s. Drawing on evidence from Hamilton's diaries, correspondence, and manuscript books, it reconstructs Hamilton's relationships with Hannah More, Ann Yearsley, and Anne Hunter, demonstrating how these poets benefited in terms of prestige from their well-connected friend's proactive stance. Hamilton's varied activities enhanced the visibility of female poets in society, helped to establish a positive perception of their works, and made a significant contribution to the cumulative influence of the Bluestockings on late eighteenth-century literary culture.
November 21, 2025 at 1:41 PM
sophiecoulombeau.bsky.social
Next, it's Mascha Hansen with 'The Literary Court: Reading Queen Charlotte'. This article investigates the literary cultures revolving around Queen Charlotte, in some of which Mary Hamilton took part. It's our last gold OPEN ACCESS contribution! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Abstract This article investigates the literary culture revolving around Queen Charlotte (1744–1818) between 1761 and 1818. The Queen's library, sold after her death in 1818, contained more than 4500 volumes, and the sales catalogue (1819) offers a fascinating glimpse into her collecting habits and reading interests. This article uses the catalogue, as well as manuscript letters recently digitized by the Unlocking the Mary Hamilton Papers project and The Georgian Papers Programme, to show how she connected with other readers both in and out of Court via a shared love of reading.
November 21, 2025 at 1:39 PM
sophiecoulombeau.bsky.social
Then, er, it's me again! In 'A ‘generous Rival’? Mary Hamilton and Frances Burney', I use archival & digital approaches to solve the mystery of why Hamilton loved Burney but Burney loathed Hamilton. The answer is one to which many novelists may relate. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Abstract This article combines close reading of manuscript correspondence with digital analysis of reading practices to trace literary and sociable interactions between the Bluestocking writers Frances Burney and Mary Hamilton between 1782 and 1796. I argue that Burney's well-established dislike of Hamilton was motivated by the (accurate) perception that Hamilton was a shallow and disingenuous reader of her novels, more interested in capitalizing on Burney's celebrity than appreciating her work. Hamilton and Burney's differing characters as readers and writers sat uneasily together, compromising their friendship's potential — a conclusion that can only be reached by combining traditional archival research with digital scholarship.
November 21, 2025 at 1:22 PM
sophiecoulombeau.bsky.social
In '‘I was so ill, and so low…’: Women, Mental Health, & Strategies of Care in The Mary Hamilton Papers', @annafranjam.bsky.social
explores how space, sociability & letter-writing were understood as strategies of self care by female correspondents in the Hamilton archive. Another OPEN ACCESS baby!
Abstract This article examines how space, sociability, and letter-writing are conceptualised as self-care strategies by female correspondents in the Hamilton archive. Building on a recent proliferation of interest in histories of mental health and emotions, it explores familiar correspondence written to Mary Hamilton between 1776 and 1809 by Louisa Murray (Lady Stormont), Jane Hamilton Holman, and Lady Mary Webb, which addresses low spirits, nervousness, melancholy, depression, and agitation of mind. It finds that three distinct yet interrelated strategies of care — change of scene, intimate sociability, and therapeutic epistolary practice — gave these correspondents important ways to manage and maintain mental health.
November 21, 2025 at 1:17 PM
sophiecoulombeau.bsky.social
Next up is 'Franks & Friendship: Eighteenth-Century Postal Practices in The Mary Hamilton Papers' by Christine Wallis, who uses evidence from TMHP to explore how postage and franking aided correspondents' politeness and identity work. It is also OPEN ACCESS! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
November 21, 2025 at 1:12 PM
sophiecoulombeau.bsky.social
Next is 'The Tip of the Iceberg: Reading Practices in Mary Hamilton's Archive, 1783–1784', by @crulph.bsky.social & I. A data-driven dive into what, how, where, when & with whom Mary Hamilton read, & reflection on DH methodologies applied to ms life writing. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Abstract This article evaluates the benefits and drawbacks of using quantitative digital analysis to reconstruct eighteenth-century reading practices using manuscript life writing. Our corpus is over a thousand pages of Mary Hamilton's letters and diary entries covering one year of her life. We report significant findings concerning the space, time, nature, and mode of Hamilton's reading, and the media, genre, authorship, and provenance of her material. Her reading diet is more dominated by female-authored manuscript prose, inflected by personal acquaintance, and reliant on a private loan economy than we anticipated — conclusions that we would not have reached using qualitative analysis alone.
November 21, 2025 at 1:05 PM
sophiecoulombeau.bsky.social
ALSO OPEN ACCESS is our 1st article, 'Reconstructing Mary Hamilton's Social Networks', by David Denison & Tino Oudesluijs, who present an innovative method for reconstructing social networks from ms letters-connecting not just correspondents but mentionees too
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Mary Hamilton's relationships and networking practices are central to this special issue. In this article, we present an innovative method for reconstructing social networks around Hamilton during five key periods of her life, connecting not just correspondents but also persons frequently mentioned in The Mary Hamilton Papers. We explain our methodology and present visualizations of the networks. By tabulating Hamilton's strongest relationships in each phase of her life, we can trace a selection of relationships over time. We reflect on the benefits and limitations of our approach, inviting expert judgement on its results and its potential for wider use.
November 21, 2025 at 12:27 PM
sophiecoulombeau.bsky.social
Also OPEN ACCESS is the Introduction, co-authored by @nuriyabo.bsky.social, David Denison, and myself. Here we situate @maryhamiltonpapers.bsky.social in context of other 18thc digital initiatives, & highlight key findings of the contributions to the vol. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
This article offers an overview of the research project Unlocking the Mary Hamilton Papers (2019–2023) — the impetus for this special issue — and positions it within the field of eighteenth-century studies. After outlining the project's genesis, we describe one of its core outputs, the digital edition of Mary Hamilton's archive, providing key technical information which is referenced in the articles that follow. We then summarize the contents of the special issue, reflect on answers to the project's original research questions that the authors provide, and highlight key synergies and themes.
November 21, 2025 at 12:21 PM
sophiecoulombeau.bsky.social
The OPEN ACCESS Foreword, by Hannah Barker & Nuria Yáñez-Bouza, is a great place to start. It introduces Hamilton, her archive, & previous relevant scholarship. It also acknowledges the crucial contributions of many other folk, esp @thejohnrylands.bsky.social onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
This foreword provides core biographical information about Mary Hamilton and tells the story of the archive she left behind. It presents a brief overview of the scholarship addressing Mary Hamilton before the research project Unlocking the Mary Hamilton Papers (2019–2023), and shows how the resulting digital edition has stimulated a new interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary wave of research that is able to exploit the archive holistically. The academic contributions to the project are contextualized by acknowledging the immensely important labour of curators, archivists, photographers, and digital specialists, among others.
November 21, 2025 at 12:17 PM
sophiecoulombeau.bsky.social
Observe, if you will, the cover illustration(repro'd at closer scale below). A network diagram featuring many (though far from all) of Mary Hamilton's close contacts. Elizabeth Carter! Frances Burney! Hannah More! Elizabeth Montagu! Joshua Reynolds! Eva Maria Garrick! Horace Walpole! George IV!
November 21, 2025 at 12:09 PM
sophiecoulombeau.bsky.social
Right then. Buckle up, knuckleheads, as they say. This is a special issue of JECS that I co-edited with my esteemed colleagues David Denison (Manchester) and Nuria Yáñez-Bouza (Vigo). It is a "major research output", as they say, from our AHRC-funded research project @maryhamiltonpapers.bsky.social
Cover of JECS special issue 48.4 (December 2025), with ToC and network diagram. DOI: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/17540208/2025/48/4
November 21, 2025 at 12:04 PM
sophiecoulombeau.bsky.social
Taken from the Bad Place:
Tweet reading: You are depressed because your ancestors fought and danced and ate meals together and you eat alone in the dark while staring at a glowing rectangle.
November 15, 2025 at 5:25 PM
sophiecoulombeau.bsky.social
When you’ve had the shittiest week possible (short or bereavement or diagnosis): home-made mini donuts.
November 15, 2025 at 2:10 PM
sophiecoulombeau.bsky.social
Real goths take their ice cream black
A little goth eating black ice cream
November 2, 2025 at 12:25 PM
sophiecoulombeau.bsky.social
Spent today filling out repetitive and
upsetting forms detailing for the billionth time all the ways my girl struggles, so we can pay over a thousand pounds to go for an assessment next week at the other end of the country. Such is SEN parent life. But the good news is: last weekend was fun!
Some silly penguin-theme booth photos of an adorable family, taken at The Deep.
November 1, 2025 at 6:15 PM
sophiecoulombeau.bsky.social
One very big band off my bucket list tonight, as i got to hear the tender and mighty @allodarlin.bsky.social play at @bandonthewall.bsky.social. Soundtrack to my whimsical thirties!
October 11, 2025 at 10:19 PM
sophiecoulombeau.bsky.social
My ex-student Jack published his debut, a Sunday Times Children’s Book of the Week, barely a year after graduating from his BA! I’m v proud & it was a total thrill to pick his book up in Waterstones. If you know a smart kid who appreciates good writing & doesn’t scare easily, I recommend GLOAM!
October 6, 2025 at 5:19 PM
sophiecoulombeau.bsky.social
All this and a roast dinner. I simply do not understand how one can be an Autumn Hater
A little girl with several enormous pumpkins Sophie and her daughter being basic bitches with a big “Hello Pumpkin” photo op scene Happy Tilly toasting marshmallows with her dad A very gooey marshmallow mouthful
October 5, 2025 at 4:38 PM
sophiecoulombeau.bsky.social
Totally made up that Reading With The Burneys has now received three insightful, generous reviews from scholars I admire. Best feeling in the world to know that my little book is out there ‘creating new methods of mining a literary text’ & ‘offer[jng] new insights into [Evelina].’
Snippet of review reading: ‘The Burneys' reading, discussion, and circulation of Evelina provide a case study of reading as a process of transformation … Although Coulombeau focuses on what she acknowledges is 'one unusual reader's relationship with one extraordinary text,' throughout she gestures toward the broader context of eighteenth-century literature, as well as the ongoing methodological problem that is the history of reading, one of the most difficult aspects of the communications circuit to capture. Reading with the Burneys uses an expanded definition of reading to offer new insights into one of the most canonical novels of the late eighteenth century.’ Rachel Scarborough King Source: SEL Studies in English Literature 1500–1900 Snippets of reviews reading: Impressive and compelling … Coulombeau’s approach of ‘3D reading’ yields both an interesting story and some broader conclusions - not a mean feat for a slim volume presenting one case study.’ Norbert Schürer Source: Textual Cultures ‘Reading with the Burneys was always a strategy to attain a particular end, which requires an interdisciplinary - or, as Coulombeau calls it, a '3D' approach, to uncover. Using methods drawn from literary studies, biography, bibliography, and the history of the book, she reveals not just the reception, but the behaviors of one reader of Evelina … In documenting this mini-history, Coulombeau creates new methods of mining a literary text.’ Geoffrey Sill Source: Burney Letter
September 16, 2025 at 6:29 PM
sophiecoulombeau.bsky.social
Introduced next door’s cat to a small decorative squirrel
September 7, 2025 at 6:11 PM
sophiecoulombeau.bsky.social
YOU GUYS. DAVID BOWIE WAS WRITING AN 18thc MUSICAL CALLED THE SPECTATOR WHEN HE DIED.

Between this and Hilary Mantel’s unfinished rewriting of Pride & Prejudice… I cannot.

David Bowie’s secret final project discovered locked in his study www.bbc.com/news/article...
September 5, 2025 at 5:14 AM
sophiecoulombeau.bsky.social
The exhibition in question is Whispers Of The Wildnerness at Beningbrough Hall, and I strongly recommend it! Go for the striking willow sculptures disrupting the heritage space, stay to find out which Austen character I do a Voice for
Enormous twisty turny willow sculpture in heritage setting Close-up of one knot (of many thousands, I imagine) in the sculpture More willow sculptures, this time on square plinths Gorgeous rainbow in Beningbrough parkland
September 1, 2025 at 8:08 PM