Sentimental Narrative and the Social Order in France, 1760 1820

In this detailed study of popular sentimentalist literature of the late eighteenth century, David J. Denby sheds new light on Enlightenment thought and sensibility.

Inhalt

Acknowledgements; Note on spelling; Introduction: the politics of tears; 1. Three sentimental writers; 2. Towards a model of the sentimental text; 3. Love and money: social hierarchy in the sentimental text; 4. Sentimentalism in the rhetoric of the Revolution; 5. Sentimentalism and idéologie; 6. Beyond sentimentalism? Madame de Staël; Conclusion; Notes; Bibliography; Index.