Descrição do livro
In this sparkling account, Brant uses the brief moment of balloon
madness as a way into a wide-ranging exploration of Enlightenment sensibility in Britain.All
the world is mad about balloons observers recorded during the craze in Britain that lasted
from 1783 to 1786. Excitement about the new invention spread rapidly, inspiring hopes,
visions, fashions, celebrations, satires, imaginary heroics and real adventures. In this
sparkling account, Brant uses the brief moment of balloon madness as a way into a
wide-ranging exploration of Enlightenment sensibility in Britain. She follows the craze as
it travelled around the country, spread through crowds and shaped the daily lives and dreams
of individuals. From the levity of fashion, political satire and light verse inspired by
balloons, she shows how wonders of air and speed alsoconnected with the deeper
preoccupations and anxieties of eighteenth-century Britain. An aerial 'view from above'
provided new moral perspectives on the place of humans in the universe and the nature of
their aspirations; while the success of the French, leaders in aeronautics, unsettled
national identity with visions of a new world order. The practical limitations of balloons
soon put an end to one set of possibilities, but their effect on popularculture was more
enduring, with meaning even today. With a cast including kings, politicians, charlatans,
pickpockets, the beau monde, duellists and animals, Balloon Madness celebrates the
excitement and fun of this briefbut world-changing episode of history and its long afterlife
in our imagination. CLARE BRANT is Professor of Eighteenth-Century Literature and Culture at
King's College London.
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