Letters to his Son, 1750

Letters to His Son, 1750, gathers a year of the famous correspondence of Philip Stanhope, fourth Earl of Chesterfield (1694-1773), the statesman whose private letters became the century’s most debated manual of conduct. Writing to his natural son in 1750, Chesterfield drills the young man in the graces, the management of men, and the arts of pleasing that he held more useful than learning. Published in 1774 after both men were dead, the letters scandalised Johnson, who said they taught the morals of a courtesan, and they have been read hungrily ever since. Free PDF download available on BDeBooks.