Ladies of the Grand Tour: British Women in Pursuit of Enlightenment and Adventure in Eighteenth-Century Europe download epub

by Brian Dolan

Epub Book: 1606 kb. | Fb2 Book: 1672 kb.

The notion of a grand tour of Europe as an essential rite of passage for aristocratic young Englishmen has been a. .

The notion of a grand tour of Europe as an essential rite of passage for aristocratic young Englishmen has been a historical given for generations. Dolan, a university lecturer, is more interested in a less common phenomenon: British women who traveled the Continent at a time when most aristocratic women's travels were narrowly constrained. Luckily, at the end of the book, Dolan includes a list with brief biography of the main figures he focuses on. For me, this book was very hit or miss, depending on the chapter. For example, I found the chapter on British women in France during the French Revolution fascinating.

Start by marking Ladies of the Grand Tour: British Women .

Start by marking Ladies of the Grand Tour: British Women in Pursuit of Enlightenment and Adventure in Eighteenth-Century Europe as Want to Read: Want to Read savin. ant to Read. One of the things that always strikes me, reading books like this, is how very hard women worked to escape the shackles of ordinary life (no change there then!). Abroad, they could study and show off their studies, they were encouraged to converse, to have opinions - and to record them too.

Christopher Hibbert published a wonderful book titled THE GRAND TOUR which reads like an 18th Century Tour Book of several of the finest cities in Europe. As fantastic as that book is, it does not deliver the human drama, the emotions of the female travelers, that Dolan's masterpiece offers. Bravo!Leah Marie Brown,Author of Willing Captive.

The Grand Tour of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was designed to enlighten the young elite of England. The French Revolution marked the end of a spectacular period of travel and enlightenment for European youth, particularly from England

The Grand Tour of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was designed to enlighten the young elite of England. Learn the must-see cities here. The French Revolution marked the end of a spectacular period of travel and enlightenment for European youth, particularly from England.

British Women in Pursuit of Enlightenment and Adventure in Eighteenth-Century Europe. Published November 6, 2001 by HarperCollins.

Read various fiction books with us in our e-reader. Books by same authors: The Grand Tour in the Eighteenth Century. 9, 10. Practical Composition And Rhetoric. 8, 10. Elementary Composition And Rhetoric.

In the 18th century, the Grand Tour was a kind of education for wealthy British noblemen. Italy with its heritage of ancient Roman monuments became one of the most popular places to visit. It was a period of European travel which could last from a few months to 8 years. During the Tour, young men learned about the politics, culture, art and antiquities of neighboring countries. They spent their time sightseeing, studying, and shopping. At the same time, art students from all parts of Europe also came to Italy to learn from ancient models

Ladies of the Grand Tour: British Women in Pursuit of Enlightenment and Adventure in Eighteenth-Century Europe Written by Brian Dolan. Life in the eighteenth century for women was a strange mixture of education, enlightenment and restriction.

Ladies of the Grand Tour: British Women in Pursuit of Enlightenment and Adventure in Eighteenth-Century Europe Written by Brian Dolan.

The Grand Tour was momentarily suspended during the Napoleonic wars, but was quickly revived once the conflict was over. Young ladies, Maria Edgeworth and Mary Wollstonecraft, for instance, would also embark on these journeys with their companions, however these tours were not expected to round out her education or develop her character in the same manner as a man’s. Ladies of the Grand Tour: British Women in Pursuit of Enlightenment and Adventure in Eighteenth-Century Europe by Brian Dolan is a great book about those women.

4. Benedict Anderson develops this provocative model of nationalism in Imagined Communities (New York: Verso Books, 2006). 5. Jürgen Habermas treats this topic in detail in, The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: An Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1992).

Drawing on journals, letters, and diaries, the author presents a portrait of the life and times of eighteenth-century women who broke the constraints of a male-dominated society and embarked on an odyssey of self-discovery.

Comments: (7)

Peras

Excellent condition and great read.

Fordrellador

This charming book revives interest in these 18th-century travelers and female wits. I was delighted to find it on Amazon--gently used! Finding these treasures is almost as good as haunting a bookstore--almost!! The book's condition was quite good--a few topic sentences had been underlined in bright blue ink. So I imagined a girl in a private school. The book illustrates a period and a class not usually treated seriously (18th-century women travelers from England to the continent). Lady Holland's spaniel has the same name as my spaniel's--a coincidence ( illustration following page 114).

Hystana

This book wasn't what I was expecting, but it is very well researched and clearly presented. I was hoping to be swept away with English Ladies on a Grand Tour escape to the Continent. Instead, this book is a documentary of women's rights, and lack of, in Eighteenth Century England. As an avid reader of Georgian/Regency/Victorian literature (and well researched romance novels) many of the points in this book were not news to me. But it still made for interesting reading and would be especially helpful to anyone researching this topic.

Because of my enjoyment in reading romantic fiction set in England during this time period, the chapter on "Fashionable Society and Foreign Affairs" was of particular interest to me. Lady Webster's affair and real-life concealment of her daughter seemed more fantastical than a novel. But of course, real life can be stranger than fiction. Some of the diary entries throughout were fascinating and I will be looking for the journals of Lady Mary Coke.

Favorite quote: "The Continent provided an escape from English laws and customs; a refuge from gossip and ostracism; it could even provide a higher standard of living in an alternative society." An interesting view of the advantages of heading abroad, and the need for some to escape England's rigid society. Sixteen pages of lovely, color paintings and photographs are a treat!

Winail

I was predisposed to love this book. I just love the whole premise of spending months knee-deep in centuries-old letters and journals, trying to determine what drove women abroad in the 1700s. Reading old letters seems so romantic to me, and it saddens me that future generations are unlikely to find a bundle of old letters tied together with a silk ribbon. Nowadays, even if we do write letters, we rarely have the patience to write in the absorbing detail that people of the past did. But at least we can go back and read about them.

I feel very much at home in the Georgian era of British history and so it wasn't hard for me to acclimate myself to all the naming conventions of the aristocracy or the famous names of the period. I think, though, that if I were not as familiar with the history of the period, it would be difficult for me to remember who was who. Luckily, at the end of the book, Dolan includes a list with brief biography of the main figures he focuses on.

For me, this book was very hit or miss, depending on the chapter. For example, I found the chapter on British women in France during the French Revolution fascinating. I can't imagine ever wanting to stay and live in a country when it was going through such a terrifying process, and that people did and wrote about it is amazing to me. I also found it interesting that the French Revolution's rallying cry of liberty, equality and fraternity really resonated with women of the period (including Mary Wollstonecraft) and had a considerable influence on the women's rights movement. I did not find some of the other chapters quite as interesting, though. For example, the chapter on women's salons wasn't as great as I thought it would be.

I also enjoyed learning about travel in the 18th century. It seems to have consisted of many over-hyped sights, shady tour guides, questionable souvenirs and sometimes horrible hotel stays. I loved that sense of familiarity.

When reading books of this type, I am of two minds about the women portrayed in them. Often, I am appalled by the powerlessness of their situations. By how often they are unhappy. By how naive they can be due to very limited life experiences. But then I "meet" women like Mary Wollstonecraft, who stayed in France throughout the revolution. Or Lady Holland who bounced back from a miserable first marriage to go through a scandalous divorce proceeding all so that she could marry her long-time lover. The courage and style some of these women had is inspiring.

I really enjoyed this book and am glad I pulled it off my shelf. While I'm not sure it would appeal to all history lovers, I think those with a love of Georgian England would really enjoy it, as would those who want to see those first seeds of the feminist movement planted. While it was not what I'd call a riveting read, it was very enjoyable and I think I learned more about the period and its key female players by reading it.

Ladies of the Grand Tour: British Women in Pursuit of Enlightenment and Adventure in Eighteenth-Century Europe download epub

World

Author: Brian Dolan
ISBN: 0060185430
Category: History
Subcategory: World
Language: English
Publisher: HarperCollins; 1 edition (November 1, 2001)
Pages: 352 pages

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