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Enemies and false friends [ Antagonism & Resistance ]

… Abstract Friendship held an important place in the long eighteenth century. But one of the major challenges of everyday life was … or treatises explicitly dealt with the subject of enmity, but it was always a central feature of the literature on friendship from this period, which contained abundant warnings about the perils of false friendship. The deepest enmities resulted from the closest friendships. Yet the candour and honesty of enemies had …

Female friendship in eighteenth-century English literature [ Feelings and Emotions ]

… Abstract The English literature of the long eighteenth century offers abundant portraits of female friendship as a frequent form of sociability among women – sometimes sentimentalised as true spiritual companionship … pure and innocent souls, sometimes demonised as a devious façade for unnatural sexual desire. As opposed to men’s friendships, which centred on socialising in the public sphere, forms of attachment among women were associated with the … lives of the Ladies of Llangollen, or literary explorations of lesbian desire, fictional portraits of female friendship in the long eighteenth century seem to have provided women with the intellectual stimulus, the emotional …

Friendship [ Social interaction / Character / Feelings and Emotions ]

… Abstract 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. These debates in turn extended to the political arena, in which the invocation of friendship could be suspect or ironic. Through examination of attitudes to friendship, we gain a broader sense of the …

Alexander Pope [ Art and Literature ]

… figure in the formation and articulation of sociable ideals. However, while he prided himself on his capacity for friendship, his own relationship to the social expectations of his time was far from comfortable. A disabled Catholic, … for polite sociability as it was generally understood by his contemporaries. People > Art and Literature Keywords poetry Friendship Scriblerus Club Correspondence Literary celebrity Enmity Both in financial terms and in the scale of his … On one hand, he articulated and helped to shape the key sociable tenets of his age. He advocated for virtuous, moral friendship as a guiding principle in public life, and was heavily invested in presenting himself to the world as someone …

Voltaire (and his social networks) [ Association ]

… was a fundamental virtue. It could manifest as anything from the most ephemeral worldliness to lifelong, intimate friendships. Voltaire was one who courted high society and gave sumptuous receptions, but the ties with those he called friend would remain sacred throughout his life. People > Association Keywords Friendship Worldliness celebrity networks Patronage theater Voltaire styled himself the ‘hermit of the Alps’ 1  in much … It would prove a decisive experience for Voltaire, conditioning his regard for sociability, and more particularly, for friendship and worldliness. Indeed, Voltaire befriended a number of high-born figures at Louis-le-Grand, such as the …

Samuel Richardson [ Art and Literature ]

… practices, fashioned links with his readers and created a society of writers and readers based on esteem, admiration and friendship, thereby promoting a special kind of sociability, relying on the qualities of the heart and mind. People > Art and Literature Keywords Samuel Richardson Writing and reading practices Letter Epistolary sociability Friendship Sentiment Heart and mind Although Samuel Richardson was a reserved, taciturn man who was ill at ease in … so that the letter takes the form of a dialogue, promotes relationships founded on depth and reflection, as well as friendship based on authenticity, or, in Richardson’s words, a contract sealed between the hearts of the parties …