Sex and sensibility: Ideal and erotic love from Milton to Mozart

by Jean H. Hagstrum

Few critics have concerned themselves with the idea of love in literature and the arts, considering the attention writers and artists have perennially lavished on the subject. Perhaps the most neglected period id that of the Restoration and eighteenth century, when, as social historians have recently shown, the relationship between ideal and erotic love increased in importance. In Sex and Sensibility Jean Hagstrum brings a lifetime of distinguished study to the idea of love in all aspects from the Restoration to Romanticism.

350 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1980