ABSTRACT
Offering a swiftly written rendition of the 1760s England, Michael Irwin’s The Skull and the Nightingale successfully imitates classical literary works of the period and their literary culture to probe the complexities of vicarious experience. This chapter argues that through its convoluted structural layering and elaborate plotting, the novel not only investigates the possibilities of narrating experience though letters but also depicts power-laden social relationships which serve as a metaphor for the links between the writer, the reader and the written word.
