Synopses & Reviews
Beauty is one of the most important and intriguing ideas in eighteenth-century culture. The concept of beauty was central to debates about art, culture and taste, and was invoked, in various and contradictory ways, to determine acceptable behavior for women. Robert W. Jones traces changing concepts of beauty in the eighteenth century through a wide range of material, including philosophical texts by William Hogarth and Edmund Burke, novels by Charlotte Lennox and Sarah Scott, and representations of the celebrated beauty Elizabeth Gunning.
Review
"...an essential work on 18th-century culture. Strongly recommended for upper-division undergraduates through faculty." Choice
Review
"...Robert W. JOnes offers new and important insights into the eighteenth century's shifting and multivalent isage of the concepts of beauty and taste...an important book for all scholars of the period." Modern Philology
Synopsis
The concept of beauty in the eighteenth century, explored through philosophical texts, novels and art.
Table of Contents
Introduction: the empire of beauty and the cultural politics of taste; 1. 'A wanton kind of chase': gender, commerce and the definition of taste in eighteenth-century Britain; 2. 'The art of being pretty': polite taste and the judgement of women; 3. 'Such strange unwonted softness': Sir Joshua Reynolds and the painting of beauty; 4. 'Her whole power of charming': the moral politics of beauty in the works of Charlotte Lennox and Sarah Scott; 5. 'The accomplishment of your long and ardent wishes': beauty, taste and the formation of culture in eighteenth-century Britain.