JaHyun Kim Haboush's edited anthology of letters from the Chosŏn dynasty is a fascinating and substantial contribution to the volume of literature on that age, opening a window onto social relations and affective ties among the country's literate classes. Covering such diverse forms as royal edicts, manifestos, and letters written on the eve of execution, in addition to personal letters written to friends and family, Epistolary Korea delves into a range of communications between the subjects of Chosŏn, and even includes exchanges with Chinese scholars by the renowned eighteenth-century literati Hong Taeyong and Pak Chega. Through its focus on the letter as a communicative device, the anthology thus lights up the somewhat dry social history that has dominated the English-language literature on Chosŏn with much welcome detail and nuance. One notable exception among these previous works has long been Haboush's fine translation of the eighteenth-century account of the murder of...
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