The picturesque (a set of theories, ideas, and conventions that grew up around the question of how we look at landscape) offers a valuable focus for new investigations into the literary, artistic, social, and cultural history of the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This volume of essays by scholars from various disciplines in Britain and America incorporates a range of historically and theoretically challenging approaches to the topic. It covers the writers most closely identified with the exposition of the picturesque as a theory, and also traces the influence and implications of its aesthetic in a variety of fields in the Romantic period, including literary and pictorial works, estate management, and women's fashion. Several essays deal more specifically with radical critiques and appropriations of the picturesque in the nineteenth century, while in others its influence is traced beyond traditionally accepted geographical or historical bounds.
Descriptosaurus: Fantasy builds on the vocabulary and descriptive phrases introduced in the original bestsellingDescriptosaurus and within the context of fantasy develops the structure and use of the
First published in 1776, Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations is much more than just a handbook on the principles of free-market economics; it is a founding text for the organization of Western society in i
In his writings, David Hume set out to bridge the gap between the learned world of the academy and the marketplace of polite society. This collection, drawing largely on his Essays Mortal, Political,
