LADIES OF THE GRAND TOUR - Softcover

Dolan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0007105339 ISBN 13: 9780007105335

Publisher: Flamingo, 2010

Synopsis

‘An utterly absorbing account, brilliantly researched and written, of women’s lives and travels in the 18th-century.’ Katie Hickman

According to ‘The Art of Governing A Wife’ (1747), women in Georgian England were supposed to ‘lay up and save, look to the house; talk to few and take of all within’. However, some broke from these taboos and took up the previously male privilege of travelling to the Continent to develop mind, spirit and body.

Hearing of the delights of the Grand Tour from pioneering friends, increasing numbers of English ladies set off to sample foreign lands from which many returned apparently ‘the best informed and most perfect creatures’. For others the Grand Tour was an intellectual and romantic rite of passage, widening their knowledge of society, love and politics and inspiring a genre of literary fiction all of its own.

Brian Dolan leads us into the hearts and minds of the ladies through the stories, thoughts and court gossip recorded in their journals, letters and diaries.

About this title

Review:

‘A marvellous shackle-breaking drama...[the lives of these] extraordinary, trend-setting female travellers.’ Sunday Telegraph

’A fascinating subject.’ Sunday Times

‘What shines out in a finely researched and presented work is the uncommon fortitude of these early travellers.’ Daily Telegraph

From the Back Cover:

According to The Art of Governing A Wife (1747), women in Georgian England were supposed to ‘lay up and save, look to the house; talk to few and take of all within’. However, some broke from these taboos and took up the previously male privilege of travelling 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 their journals, letters and diaries.'Ladies of the Grand Tour' creates a mesmerising portrait of a previously overcooked slice of eighteenth-century life.

About this edition

• Publisher: Flamingo
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0007105339
• ISBN 13: 9780007105335
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 370