Pleasure in the Eighteenth Century

by Marie Mulvey Roberts, Roy Porter

Pleasure, wrote Oscar Wilde, is the only thing worth having a theory about. In Pleasure in the Eighteenth Century, Roy Porter and Marie Mulvey Roberts question the idea of pleasure as unmediated, natural experience. To what extent was pleasure stage-managed to make it socially, morally, and politically acceptable?
Taking its cue from Michel Foucault, this volume represents a stunning example of the pleasures of analysis, a place where discourse about pleasure is a pleasure in its own right. From cross-dressing to feasting, music to charity work, the essays in this volume probe the foundations of eighteenth-century society while entertaining the reader vicariously with their tales of vanished delights.

Genres: 18th Century

256 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1996

Reviews

[Wendy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good information about the different types of pleasure, the pursuit of pleasure by the different classes, and prevailing and changing attitudes toward pleasure.