Lettere scritte dall’Inghilterra (Letters written from England)

Lettere, one of Foscolo's many incomplete works, was written during the first year spent in London, when the author, inspired by travel report letters and booklets on the characters of nations, started to collect information on the most diverse aspects of English culture, society and customs. The project envisaged the drafting of many letters to be sent to various receivers; Foscolo intended to exploit his great skill in epistolary writing to compile a fictional collection of letters for publication. Various clues remain from the ambitious initial project, corrected over time, that show that if the publication had been finished it would almost have been encyclopaedic in nature. Among the most significant parts is an autobiographical piece entitled Esilio (Exile), sent to Enrico Meister in Zurich; then there are fragments of Citazioni ed epigrafi (Quotations and epigraphs), a letter about tea and one on gossip.

The biggest part is a letter on Moda (Fashion) that was never given a final home and was addressed to Count Carlo Cicogna, an elegant, young socialite from Milan. The theme of fashion was dealt with more extensively in a diary piece that was part of a collection of news columns and journalistic works that form the biggest part of Lettere, and which led the 19^th century publishers to choose the title Gazzettino del Bel Mondo (Gazzette of the Beautiful World) for the whole work. Foscolo often assumed the attitude of a foreigner who disdains foreign customs, defends the homeland and displays a moralistic disposition in these columns. The writing is fragmentary and not very coherent, the tone varies between ironic and polemical, description and reasoning.