British-French Exchanges in the Eighteenth Century

Book excerpt: France and Great Britain, so close geographically but separated by language, culture and history, had been exchanging merchandise, visitors, rulers and ideas for hundreds of years before the eighteenth century. The flow of traffic only quickened during this period, and became a flood, in the direction of Great Britain, during the decade following the Revolution. While certain of these exchanges, such as Voltaire’s sojourn abroad, have been studied in detail, others are coming into focus only as scholars study secondary figures in the host country and the interactions of various groups with its citizens. British-French Exchanges in the Eighteenth Century gathers together fourteen recent essays by scholars from Great Britain and the United States who have examined various parameters of the subject. Correspondences and translations are obvious forms of cultural sharing and are in play in many of the essays. Others recount and analyse the stories of persons who actually visited the other country in circumstances ranging from pure tourism to emigration to a hostage exchange. A final group of essays treats intellectual influences in realms as diverse as encyclopaedism, cultural analysis, connoisseurship, and cosmopolitanism in the arts. The volume is appropriate for collections in history, literature, and culture. TABLE OF CONTENTS Part I: Translations and Correspondence 1 Bernardin de Saint-Pierre’s English Correspondents During the French Revolution MALCOLM COOK 2 The English Translations of Voltaire’s La Pucelle J. PATRICK LEE† 3 Enlightened Exchange: The Correspondence of André Morellet and Lord Shelburne DOROTHY MEDLIN and ARLENE P. SHY 4 The Scottish Enlightenment in Action: The Correspondence of William Robertson and J.-B.-A. Suard JEFFREY SMITTEN Part II: Sojourns Abroad 5 ‘The Only Disagreeable Thing in the Whole’: the Selection and Experience of the British Hostages for the Delivery of Cape Breton in Paris, 1748-49 ROBIN EAGLES 6 Peregrinations to the Convent: Hester Thrale Piozzi and Ann Radcliffe TONYA MOUTRAY MCARTHUR 7 Friend or Foe? French Émigrés Discover Britain ROSENA DAVISON 8 ‘Genuine Anecdotes’: Mary Charlton and Revolutionary Celebrity GILLIAN DOW Part III: Intellectual and Artistic Exchanges 9 Two Partial English-Language Translations of the Encyclopédie: The Encyclopedias of John Barrow and Temple Henry Croker JEFF LOVELAND 10 British Biography in the Encyclopédie méthodique: Histoire KATHLEEN HARDESTY DOIG 11 Diderot, Dentistry and British Politics: Two Neglected Pamphlets DAVID ADAMS 12 British and French Influences on Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur’s Letters from an American Farmer DEIDRE DAWSON 13 A Commonwealth of Connoisseurs: British Humanism in the Art and Science of the Ancien Régime ELIZABETH LIEBMAN 14 An Anglo-Swiss Connection in the Age of Voltaire: Jean Huber’s British Friends and Relations GARRY APGAR