Books : Ladies of the Grand Tour: British Women in Pursuit of Enlightenment and Adventure in Eighteenth-Century Europe
In association with Amazon.comby: Brian Dolan
Dewey Decimal Number: 914.042082
EAN: 9780060185435
ISBN: 0060185430
Label: HarperCollins
Manufacturer: HarperCollins
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 352
Publication Date: November 01, 2001
Publisher: HarperCollins
Release Date: November 06, 2001
Sales Rank: 113314
Studio: HarperCollins
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
According to the 1747 publication The Art of Governing a Wife, women in Georgian England were to "lay up and save, look to the house, talk to few and take of all within." However, some women broke from these directives and took up the distinctly male privilege of traveling to the Continent to develop mind, spirit, and body.
For many the Grand Tour -- often undertaken in great parades of coaches laden with servants, trunks, and furniture -- became an intellectual and romantic rite of passage. The landscape, health spas, salons, and social scene of Enlightenment Europe provided a wealth of glamorous, revolutionary, and therapeutic experiences from which many ladies returned "the best informed and most perfect creatures."
Brian Dolan leads us into the hearts and minds of the ladies through their stories, thoughts, and court gossip, recorded in journals, letters, and diaries. Ladies of the Grand Tour creates a mesmerizing portrait of a previously overlooked slice of eighteenth-century life.
Average Rating: 
Rating:
- An Outstanding book both on travel and on womenI am delighted to be able to "live" 18th century travel through the eyes of the woman that Dolan brings to life. I am especially glad not to be travelling like they did - airport security gates are a much aggravation as I can take.
Dolan takes his topic broadly. The book is not just a recounting of travel incidents -- it spends considerable time on the significance of being abroad, particularly for those women who spend time in France during the Revolution, eventually fleeing as it ... Read More
Rating:
- An excellent representation of the ambitions of 18th Century womenBrian Dolan has created a masterpiece of historical narrative, highlighting the trials and tribulations of being an 18th Century British woman with aspirations to anything OTHER than domesticity. The characters he, in many cases, rescues from obscurity are brought to brilliant life through their own words, and immediately upon finishing this book (which I read during a plane flight from Europe to California) I wanted to run out and read all I could find on Mary and Agnes Berry, Elizabeth Carter, Lady ... Read More
Rating:
- An Engaging JourneyAs someone who is passionate about the 18th century France, I purchased Mr. Dolan's book with great excitement and many anticipations. I am happy to say, it was a purchase well made. Ladies of the Grand Tour is an interesting look into the minds and hearts of European Women living during a tulmultuous times. Mr. Dolan deftly weaves contrasting views on society (ex: Burke and Wollstonecraft sound off opposing opinions about my idol, Marie Antoinette) making for a well-balanced read.
Though I have ... Read More
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