Character

This entry describes conviviality as it was practised in the eighteenth century with distinctions between sociability and conviviality. It also describes the use of the term, and the specific rituals associated with convivial culture.

This entry explores the diverse uses of the language and concept of friendship in eighteenth-century Britain. Though obviously central to sociable thought and practice, friendship was also caught up in philosophical debates about the instrumentality of feeling and the nature of social obligation.

This entry explores the rake archetype from his literary origins as a symbol of male elitism and excess, to his cultural impact on eighteenth-century collective consciousness. From his inception during the Restoration to his apparent decline towards the end of the Georgian era, the figure seems deeply intertwined with the specific hic et nunc of eighteenth-century Great Britain.

Adam Smith is best known as the author of An Enquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, where, to most readers, he is the champion of the free market and the pursuit of economic self-interest. Much less appreciated, however, is his first work, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, which paints quite a different picture of human sociability.