Literary Salons Across Britain and Ireland in the Long Eighteenth Century (Palgrave Studies in the Enlightenment, Romanticism and Cultures of Print)

The eighteenth-century salon played an important role in shaping literary culture, while both creating and sustaining transnational intellectual networks. Focusing on archival materials, this book is the first detailed examination of the literary salon in Ireland, considered in the wider contexts of contemporary salon culture in Britain and France. Literary Salons Across Britain and Ireland in the Long Eighteenth Century examines the central role played by salons in the transnational circulation of ideas, goods and cultural practices. With its interdisciplinary emphasis, and a focus on archival research, the book examines how the nature of elite sociability changed during the period, exploring literary patronage and networks, material culture, and social transformations. The celebrated salons of the Irish Bluestocking Elizabeth Vesey at Lucan, Co. Dublin, and Bolton Street in London, receive particular emphasis, as does that of Lady Moira in Dublin. These influential salons reveal much about the nature of elite society in the English and Irish capitals, while enhancing appreciation of the role of salon hostess as cultural intermediary. Also explored is the important contribution made by the salons to literature, antiquarianism, performance, and translation, together with the salon's role in creating and sustaining cosmopolitan networks and influencing intellectual debate Front Matter....Pages i-ix Introduction....Pages 1-13 The French Salon: Its Foreign Participants and Hosts....Pages 14-43 A French Phenomenon Embraced: The Literary Salon in Eighteenth-Century Britain....Pages 44-77 “Never Was a Flock So Scattered for Want of a Shepherdess”: Elizabeth Vesey Between England and Ireland....Pages 78-105 Moira House Salon: A Site for Irish Scholarship....Pages 106-131 Collaborative Hospitality and Cultural Transfers: Provincial Salons Across England and Ireland....Pages 132-152 “Dublin Is Attribilaire” — The Changing Nature of Elite Sociability....Pages 153-176 Back Matter....Pages 177-238 The 18th-century salon played an important role in shaping literary culture, while both creating and sustaining transnational intellectual networks. Focusing on archival materials, this book provides a detailed examination of the literary salon in Ireland, considered in the wider contexts of contemporary salon culture in Britain and France