Description
Book SynopsisReaders will relish this large-scale yet intimately detailed examination of the blossoming of the ordinary and extraordinary people of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment. This third in the popular five-volume series celebrates the emergence of individualism and the manifestations of a burgeoning self-consciousness over three centuries.
Trade ReviewIn the original sense of the term,
A History of Private Life is a series of essays: attempts at a new, non-narrative kind of history. Sumptuously illustrated with pictures, maps, and photographs, the book is a feast for the eye; it is fascinating, often compelling in its exquisite details… A kaleidoscopic effect is doubtless part of the authors’ purpose: to question our assumption that we understand the history of Renaissance individualism and make us realize that it is as complicated as the variety of traces left by three centuries of private life. -- Maureen Quilligan * New York Times Book Review *
This is a bold and seductive book… Richly illustrated, with contributions from foremost French historians, it is set fair to become the authoritative history of intimacy in the early modern West. -- Lyndal Roper * Times Higher Education Supplement *
Its broad chronological scope, its remarkable effective integration of essays by different historians, and above all its ability to represent the seemingly frivolous details of private life in a challengingly theoretical matrix make this an important and exciting work for historians of Early Modern Europe. -- Lawrence Wolff * Journal of Social History *
The new emphasis on the history of everybody has now been consecrated in [this] ambitious five-volume series…masterfully translated by Arthur Goldhammer… Copious illustrative materials—paintings, drawings, caricatures, and photographs, all cannily chosen and wittily captioned to display domestic life… Magnificent. -- Roger Shattuck * New York Times Book Review *
Together these five compact volumes cover much of the history of the classical world, and do so with both ease and authority. * Washington Post Book World *
Table of ContentsIntroduction by Philippe Aries 1. Figures of Modernity by Yves Castan, Fran&ccdeil;ois Lebrun, Roger Chartier Introduction by Roger Chartier Politics and Private Life The Two Reformations: Communal Devotion and Personal Piety The Practical Impact of Writing 2. Forms of Privatization by Jacques Revel, Orest Ranum, Jean-Louis Flandrin, Jacques Gelis, Madelaine Foisil, Jean Marie Goulemot Introduction by Roger Chartier The Uses of Civility The Refuges of Intimacy Distinction through Taste The Child: From Anonymity to Individuality The Literature of Intimacy Literary Practices: Publicizing the Private 3. Community, State, and Family: Trajectories and Tensions by Nicole Castan, Maurice Aymard, Alain Collomp, Daniel Fabre, Arlette Farge Introduction by Roger Chartier The Public and the Private Friends and Neighbors Families: Habitations and Cohabitations Families: Privacy versus Custom The Honor and Secrecy of Families Epilogue by Roger Chartier Notes Bibliography Credits Index
