The Pyramid and the Urn: The Life in Letters of a Restoration Squire - William Lawrence of Shurdington, 1636-97 (Biography, Letters & Diaries S.) - Hardcover

The Pyramid and the Urn: The Life in Letters of a Restoration Squire - William Lawrence of Shurdington, 1636-1697 (Biography, Letters & Diaries S.)

Hardcover. Zustand: Near Fine. Zustand des Schutzumschlags: Very Good. Iona Sinclair (illustrator). 1st Edition. Hardcover, xiv + 161 pages, b&w illustrations in text, NOT ex-library. Title page signed by the Editor. Printing imperfection: a horizontal crease on a portion of leaves. Lovely condition, book is clean and bright throughout, untanned, with unmarked text, free of inscriptions and stamps, firmly bound. Bright, untorn, unclipped dust jacket with a touch of edgewear. -- This volume presents the life of William Lawrence (1636-1697), a learned country squire of Shurdington, Gloucestershire, through the meticulous transcription of his personal letter-book. Unlike typical loose correspondence, these letters were painstakingly copied by Lawrence into a permanent record, functioning as both private communication and deliberate literary exercises. Edited and contextualised by Iona Sinclair, the text reveals a man of the Middle Temple and Oxford, whose prose is defined by an extravagant, Baroque style characteristic of the high-culture Restoration gentry. The narrative provides an intimate microhistory of provincial life, covering the complexities of estate management, local legal disputes, and the social rituals of the Gloucestershire elite. A unique dimension of the collection is Lawrence's regular correspondence with his brother, Isaac Lawrence, a merchant for the East India Company based in Persia (Iran). This "Persian connection" offers a rare glimpse into how global trade and exotic reports influenced the intellectual world of a rural English manor. The title, 'The Pyramid and the Urn', reflects Lawrence's frequent, often idiosyncratic meditations on mortality, legacy, and memory, providing scholars with a rich primary source for the study of 17th-century mentalities, misogynistic wit, and the socio-economic structures of the English provincial gentry. Signed by Author(s). Artikel-Nr. 013075

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