British Sociability in the European Enlightenment

'Hansen and Domsch’s collection of essays on the philosophy and practice of sociability in the eighteenth-century forges an innovative and rewarding new direction for sociability studies in British and European contexts. In a series of closely-examined and detailed case studies, it explores how individuals, both fictional and in real life, negotiated cross-cultural encounter through sociable and conversational practices, in locations for sociability like the coffee-house, assembly-room, and theatre, but also in less familiar venues like the waltz, the spa-town, and the letter.'

- Markman Ellis, Professor of Eighteenth-Century Studies, Queen Mary University of London, UK.
This volume covers a broad range of everyday private and public, touristic, commercial and fictional encounters between Britons and continental Europeans, in a variety of situations and places: moments that led to a meaningful exchange of opinions, practices, or concepts such as friendship or politeness. It argues that, taken together, travel accounts, commercial advice, letters, novels and philosophical works of the long eighteenth century, reveal the growing impact of British sociability on the sociable practices on the continent, and correspondingly, the convivial turn of the Enlightenment. In particular, the essays collected here discuss the ways and means – in conversations, through travel guides or literary works – by which readers and writers grappled with their cultural differences in the field of sociability. The first part deals with travellers, the second section with the spreading of various cultural practices, and the third with fictional encounters in philosophical dialogues and novels.