The Age of Conversation [Hardcover]

Benedetta Craveri (Author), Teresa Waugh (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 30, 2005

Here, in the first English edition of Benedetta Craveri's recent scholarly study, Civiltà della conversazione, he describes the world of women and French salons in the 17th and 18th centuries. Salons brought together not only intellectuals (Voltaire was a frequent and much sought-after guest) and socialites, but also members of the political and military worlds. The salons allowed differences between these various powerful sectors to be resolved through the art of conversation rather than through the art of war. This book describes in nonacademic writing the women and the salons, the guests, the conversations, and the political and social environments of the ancien régime.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Craveri's account of the French aristocratic circles in which conversation emerged as an art offers a rich blend of personalities, anecdotes, scandal and genuinely amusing letters to flesh out an intellectual argument leading from early 17th-century aristocratic entertainment to the Enlightenment salon. Craveri, a contributor to the New York Review of Books, develops her theme by examining the careers of several prominent women who carved social and intellectual space for themselves in their homes and served as models for successive generations. The Marquise de Rambouillet set the stage when she retreated from Louis XIII's inhospitable court to build her famed Blue Room, designed specifically for refined entertainment. Even in this early phase, says Craveri, an emphasis on style and wit led to some blurring of class distinctions. A generation of women who had gathered under Rambouillet's roof continued the fashion, shaped by literary interests, religion, delicately and passionately expressed tastes, love affairs and female friendships and rivalries. By the next century, the British identified wit and elegance, developed in the salons, as the quintessential French quality that allowed all manner of ideas to be expressed. This intriguing book is peppered with untranslatable words that miraculously don't weigh it down. (June)
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From The New Yorker

Craveri argues that when, in the sixteen-twenties, the Marquise de Rambouillet offered her home as a place for the French nobility to gather she was unwittingly fermenting a revolution. The next century and a half constituted the golden age of conversation, which allowed the aristocracy to establish a new order, based not on the strictures of church or crown but on manners. Craveri's narrative paints a series of brilliant portraits of those (mostly women) who presided over the new sphere. Her thesis that the politesse of the nobility was the foundation of égalité is subtly provocative, but it ignores the legions who were excluded from the salons, and who took up arms against the bantering classes. For Craveri, the aristocracy is elegant, witty, and honorable to the end, when salons were held in prison as the conversationalists awaited the guillotine.
Copyright © 2005 The New Yorker

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 475 pages
• Publisher: New York Review Books; Tra edition (June 30, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590171411
• ISBN-13: 978-1590171417
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,167,179 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Noble talking, January 1, 2006

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César González Rouco (Madrid, Madrid Spain) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Age of Conversation (Hardcover)

The description on the synopsis of the book provided by the "Book reviews" is fairly accurate. Therefore, I will only point out that the book is no very engaging, but it is not dry either. It can be savoured by the professional historian, and by the educated layperson too. Therefore, my rating is 5 (content) and 3/4 (pleasure). In addition to this work, other books that I would recommend reading would be 1) "Nobilities in Transition 1550-1700 : Courtiers and Rebels in Britain and Europe" by Ronald G. Asch; 2 and 3)"Myths of Power. Norbert Elias and the Early Modern European Court " and "Vienna and Versailles : The Courts of Europe's Dynastic Rivals, 1550-1780 (New Studies in European History)" by Jeroen Duindam (whose books present a more accurate view of monarchy, nobility, the court and the state contrary to that provided by Elias's "The Court Society"); and 4) "The Pleasures of the Imagination: English Culture in the Eighteenth Century" by John Brewer.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Women of style and words, August 22, 2007

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10022reviews (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Age of Conversation (Paperback)

Thoroughly enjoyed this hundred year plus survey of women who influenced French culture and the world through their skillful handling of men of letters and men of power. It is well-written, not ponderous or academic like many histories. Anyone who is interested in France, nobility, women's history, or the art of living well will find this an intriguing look into the beautiful drawing rooms of Paris. I can think of several friends to whom I would recommend this book. Truly satisfying.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Understanding the Salon movement, November 30, 2009

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A. Smick - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Age of Conversation (Paperback)

This is an excellent study of the salon movement in France during the 17th and 18th centuries. It is both scholarly and readable. After many years of reading about this phenomenon during the Enlightenment, I feel that I have begun to understand how it came to be and why it was so important. Ms Craveri has put the intellectual contributions of women in the 17th and 18th centuries into a comprehensible context. I especially enjoyed the citations from primary sources which give texture to her work.