Clare Brant

Susan E. Whyman

Walking the Streets of Eighteenth-Century London will entertain and inform all who are interested in literature, history, and the city of London. This unique book invites the reader to walk along the dirty, crowded, and fascinating streets of eighteenth-century London in an unusual way. Nine leading experts from the fields of literature, history, classics, gender, biography, geography, and costume, offer different interpretations of John Gay's poem Trivia: or, the Art of Walking the Streets of London (1716). The poem - a lively, funny, and thought-provoking statement about urban life - accompanies the essays, in a new edition with comprehensive notes. The introduction paints a vibrant picture of London in 1716, depicting Gay's fascinating life and literary world, offering an invaluable guide to the poem. Together, these elements allow the heat, grime, and smells of the underbelly of eighteenth-century London come alive in new ways.

John Gay's Trivia (1716)

Walking the Streets of Eighteenth-Century London

Diane Purkiss

First published in 1992. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Women, Texts and Histories 1575-1760

In this sparkling account, Brant uses the brief moment of balloon madness as a way into a wide-ranging exploration of Enlightenment sensibility in Britain.

Flights of Imagination in Britain, 1783-1786

Balloon Madness

This important book, now in paperback, explores epistolary forms and practices in relation to important areas of British culture. Who wrote letters? Who read letters? What were the conventions of letters and how were they understood? Each chapter explores these questions in relation to a series of characters, including men and women of letters, parents, lovers, criminals, citizens, travelers, historians and Christians. Bringing together a wide range of epistolary materials, both non-fictional and fictional, this original and important study gives extensively-researched understanding of the central place of letters in eighteenth-century writing, and a new way of looking at eighteenth-century life. The volume will be of immense value to literary scholars and historians alike, and marks an important milestone in eighteenth-century studies.

Clare Brant

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