Francophilia in English Society - by R Eagles (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

This book examines the impact of French society on English culture in the second half of the eighteenth century. In an age when many historians suggest the inexorable rise of the middle classes was being driven forward by industrialization, the English aristocracy stood apart from the trend towards commercial respectability, and revelled in all that was best in cosmopolitan fashion and ideas. Welcoming the French Revolution as a re-enactment of 1688, they watched aghast as their world descended into the Terror, and the onslaught of Bonaparte.

Review Quotes

'Eagles's evidence is immaculately marshalled, and tells us a great deal about English Society during the reigns of Georges II and III...His book is scholarly social history at its best.' - The Independent

'...challenging...sparkling...Eagles has some fascinating material - about for example, French influences on English playwrights, or the experience of English travellers and expatriates in France.' - Noel Malcolm, Daily Telegraph

About the Author

ROBIN EAGLES is Senior Research Fellow at the History of Parliament, UK. He has been a contributor to L. Brockliss and D. Eastwood, (eds), A Union of Multiple Identities: the British Isles 1750-1850, and the New Dictionary of National Biography.