Mid-eighteenth-century London witnessed a major expansion in public culture as a result of a rapidly commercialising society. Of the many new sites of entertainment, the most celebrated (and often notorious) were the Carlisle House club, the Pantheon, and the Ladies Club or Coterie. In the first major study of these institutions and the fashionable sociability they epitomised, Gillian Russell examines how they transformed metropolitan cultural life. Associated with lavish masquerades, excesses of fashion, such as elaborate hairstyles, and scandalous intrigues, these venues suggested a feminisation of public life which was profoundly threatening, not least to the theatre of the period. In this highly-illustrated and original contribution to the cultural history of the eighteenth century, Russell reveals new perspectives on the theatre and on canonical plays such as The School for Scandal, as well as suggesting a pre-history for British Romanticism.
Contents
1. Introduction; 2. The Circe of Soho: Teresa Cornelys and Carlisle House; 3. Harmonic routs and midnight revels: the politics of masquerade; 4. 'Dissipation's Hydra Reign': Almack's and the coterie; 5. 'Welcome to the pleasure dome': the London Pantheon; 6. Lady Bab and Mrs. Ab: the woman of fashion and the theatre; 7. 'Alias, alias, alias': the trials of the Duchess of Kingston; 8. 'Lady Teazle's occupation's o'er'; 9. Conclusion; Bibliography; Index.
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