Luxury in the eighteenth century : debates, desires and delectable goods / edited by Maxine Berg and Elizabeth Eger.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Berg, Maxine, 1950-

Eger, Elizabeth.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Luxury--History--18th century.

Luxury.

Wealth--History--18th century.

Wealth.

Economic history--1600-1750.

Economic history.

Economic history--1750-1918.

History.

Physical Description:

xii, 259 pages, 18 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire ; New York : Palgrave, 2003.

Summary:

This volume explores the political, economic, moral, and intellectual effects of the production and consumption of luxury goods in the 18th century. The history of luxury links diverse topics of enquiry such as material culture, taste, civility and sensibility, literature, and art. The text provides a broadly-based account from a variety of perspectives, addressing key themes of economic debate, material culture, the principles of art and taste, luxury as "female vice, " and the exotic.

Contents:

Part I Debates

1 The Rise and Fall of the Luxury Debates / Maxine Berg, Elizabeth Eger 7

2 Mandeville, Rousseau and the Political Economy of Fantasy / Edward Hundert 28

3 Luxury in the Dutch Golden Age in Theory and Practice / Jan de Vries 41

4 Aestheticising the Critique of Luxury: Smollett's Humphry Clinker / Michael McKeon 57

Part II Delectable Goods

5 Furnishing Discourses: Readings of a Writing Desk in Eighteenth-Century France / Dena Goodman 71

6 The Circulation of Luxury Goods in Eighteenth-Century Paris: Social Redistribution and an Alternative Currency / Laurence Fontaine 89

7 Custom or Consumption? Plebeian Fashion in Eighteenth-Century England / John Styles 103

Part III Beauty, Taste and Sensibility

8 From the Moral Mound to the Material Maze: Hogarth's Analysis of Beauty / Annie Richardson 119

9 From Luxury to Comfort and Back Again: Landscape Architecture and the Cottage in Britain and America / John Crowley 135

10 Vase Mania / Jenny Uglow 151

Part IV The Female Vice? Women and Luxury

11 Performing Roxane: The Oriental Woman as the Sign of Luxury in Eighteenth-Century Fictions / Ros Ballaster 165

12 Luxury, Satire and Prostitute Narratives / Vivien Jones 178

13 Luxury, Industry and Charity: Bluestocking Culture Displayed / Elizabeth Eger 190

Part V Luxury and the Exotic

14 Luxuries or Not? Consumption of Silk and Porcelain in Eighteenth-Century China / Shelagh Vainker 207

15 Luxury, Clothing and Race in Colonial Spanish America / Rebecca Earle 219

16 Asian Luxuries and the Making of the European Consumer Revolution / Maxine Berg 228.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0333963822

OCLC:

50028593