19th August 2024: digital purchasing is currently unavailable on Cambridge Core. Due to recent technical disruption affecting our publishing operation, we are experiencing some delays to publication. We are working hard to restore services as soon as possible and apologise for the inconvenience. For further updates please visit our website: https://www.cambridge.org/universitypress/about-us/news-and-blogs/cambridge-university-press-publishing-update-following-technical-disruption
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 February 2009
IN March 1802, the peace treaty of Amiens was signed, resulting in a two-way flow of travellers across the English Channel. Among those arriving at Dover was Joseph Fiévée, printer by trade, littérateur by vocation, and latterly politican by profession. It is said that he was commissioned by Bonaparte himself to report on affairs in London. In any event, his findings were published in the Mercure and reprinted in a work whose title, Lettres sur l'Angleterre, et réflexions sur la philosopkie du XVIIIe siècle, challenged comparison with the most famous of French commentaries on England, that of Voltaire. It reads as polemic rather than analysis, confronting what Fiévée took to be serious errors made by his countrymen when they wrote about Britain. But little of the book was what one might expect of such a work. Fiévée was not primarily interested in British politics, law and government, but in the character and manners of the people. His conclusions may be summed up in one of his many generalizations. ‘If civilization … is the art of rendering society pleasing, agreeable and congenial, the English constitute the least civilised nation of Europe.’
1 (Paris, 1802), 193.
2 Anglomania has a considerable historical literature; seeGury, Jacques, ‘Une excentricite à l'anglaise: l'anglomanie’ in L'excentrcité en Grande-Bretagne au 18e siècle, ed., Plaisant, Michèle, (Lille, 1976), 189–211Google Scholar;Grieder, Josephine, Anglomania in France 1740–1789: Fact, Fiction, and Political Discourse (Geneva, 1985)Google Scholar; Nordmann, Claude, ‘Anglomanie et anglophobie en France au xviiie siècle’, Revue du Nord, 66 (1984), 787–803Google Scholar;Acomb, Frances, Anglophobia in France, 1763–1789: An Essay in the History of Constitutionalism and Nationalism (Durham, NC, 1950)Google Scholar;Maurer, Michael, Aufklärung und Angbphilie in Deutschland (Göttingen, 1987)Google Scholar;Cross, A. G., ‘By the Banks of the Thames’: Russians in Eighteenth Century Britain (Newtonville, MA, 1980)Google Scholar.
3 Nemnich, Philipp Andrew, An Universal Dictionary of Merchandise (1799)Google Scholar, preface.
4 France, Peter, Politeness and its Discontents: Problems in French Classical Culture (Cambridge, 1992), 2, 54CrossRefGoogle Scholarff.
5 Klein, Larry, Shaftesbury and the Culture of Politeness (Cambridge, 1984)Google Scholar;Phillipson, N., Hume (1989)Google Scholar.
6 Two accounts spanning the period are Fenela Ann Childs, ‘Prescriptions for Manners in English Courtesy Literature, 1690–1760, and their Social Implications’, (DPhil thesis, Oxford University, 1984)Google Scholar, andMorgan, Marjorie, Manners, Morals and Class in England, 1774–1858 (1994)Google Scholar.
7 Oxford in 1710 from the Travels of zacharias Conrad von Uffenbach, ed. Quarrell, W. H. and Quarrell, W. J. C. (Oxford, 1928), 10Google Scholar.
8 Cru, R., Diderot as a Disciple of English Thought (New York, 1913), 339–40Google Scholar.
9 See Gordon, Daniel, Citizens without Sovereignty: Equality and Sociability in French Thought, 1670–1789 (Princeton, 1994)Google Scholar.
10 An Historical View of the English Government, from the Settlement of the Saxons in Britain to the Revolution in 1688 (4 vols., 1803), IV, 249Google Scholar.
11 Eton, W., A Survey of the Turkish Empire (1798), 245Google Scholar.
12 A Picture of England (2 vols., 1789), I, 9Google ScholarPubMed.
13 35, 159.
14 (1795), 31–2.
15 Mattlé, Robert, Lamartim voyageur (Paris, 1936), 285Google Scholar.
16 Goede, C. A. G., The Stranger in England; Travels in Great Britain (3 vols., 1807), II, 148Google Scholar.
17 Granville, P. B., ed., Autobiography of A.B. Granville (2 vols., 1874), I, 273Google Scholar.
18 Geijer, Erik Gustaf, Impressions of England 1809–10, intr. Blanck, Anton (1932), 154Google Scholar.
19 The Correspondence of Richard Steele, ed. Blanchard, Rae (Oxford, 1941), 445Google Scholar.
20 Letters of a Russian Traveller 1789–1790, trans, and abridged by Jones, Florence (New York, 1957), 335Google Scholar.
21 Waugh, Nora, The Cut of Men's Clothes, 1600–1900 (1964), 105Google Scholar.
22 Simond, Louis, Journal of a Tour and Residence in Great Britain, during the Tears 1810 and 1811, by a French Traveller (2 vols., Edinburgh, 1815), I, 21Google Scholar; Melibrt, Edouard de, Impressions of England (2 vols., 1836), II, 204Google Scholar; Wildeblood, Joan and Brinson, Peter, Polite World: A Guide to English Manners and Deportment from the Thirteenth to the Nineteenth Century (London, 1965)Google Scholar, chap. 10, where less formal fashions are treated as characteristic of the nineteenth century, though all of them had been practised in some degree in the eighteenth.
23 Zimmermann, J. G., Essay on National Pride, trans. Wilcocke, Samuel Hull (1797), 78–9Google Scholar. See also Kelly, John Alexander, England and the Englishman in German Literature of the Eighteenth Century (New York, 1921), 61Google Scholar.
24 The Memoirs of Charles-Lewis, Baron de Pollnitz (2nd edn, 2 vols., 1739), II, 436Google Scholar.
25 Lichtenberg in England, ed. Gumbert, Hans Ludwig (2 vols., Wiesbaden, 1977), I, 309Google Scholar.
26 Histoire secrete de la com de Berlin (2 vols., Alençon, 1789), I, 251Google Scholar.
27 Moore, John, A View of Society and Manners in France, Switzerland, and Germany (2 vols., 1779), II, 91Google Scholar.
28 Mémoires, lettres et pensées, préface Thomas, de Chantal (Paris, 1989), 632Google Scholar.
29 Franklin, Alfred, La civilité, I'étiguette, la mode, le bon ton du XHIe au XIIIe siècle (Paris, 1908), 148–9Google Scholar.
30 Briefe zur Characteristik von England gohörig; geschruben auf einer Reise im Jahre 1784 von Heinrich von Watzdorf (Leipzig, 1786), 156Google Scholar.
31 Schopenhauer, Johanna, Reise durch England und Schottland (2 vols., Leipzig, 1818), II, 16–17Google Scholar.
32 Gentz, Friedrich von, Briefe von und an Friedrich von Gentz, ed. Wittiche, Friedrich Karl (3 vols., Munich and Berlin, 1909–1913), II, 392Google Scholar.
33 Crapelet, , Souvenirs de Londres en 1814 et 1816 (Paris, 1817), 44Google Scholar.
34 Baroness von Riedesel and the American Revolution: Journal and Correspondence of a Tour of Duty 1776–1783, revised trans. Brown, Marvin L. jr, (Chapel Hill, 1965), 10Google Scholarff.
35 Buzonnière, Léon de, Le touriste écossais, ou itinéraire géneral de l'Ecosse, outrage indispensable au voyageur (Paris, 1830), 32Google Scholar.
36 Mérimée, Prosper, Etudes Anglo-Américaines, ed. Connes, Georges (Paris, 1930), 1–2Google Scholar.
37 Jenner, C., The Placid Man: Or, Memoirs of Sir Charles Beville (2nd edn, 2 vols., 1773), II, 142Google Scholar.
38 Donogh, F. Mac, The Hermit in London: Or, Sketches of English Manners (5 vols., 1819–1820), II, 118–19Google Scholar; Town Talk Or Living Manners (n.d.), I, 375.
39 Almack's: A Novel (3 vols., 1826), II, 209–10Google Scholar.
40 Bombelles, Marc de, Journal de voyage en Grande Bretagne et en Irlande 1784, ed. Gury, Jacques (Oxford, 1989), 293Google Scholar.
41 Angiolini, Luigi, Lettere sull'Inghilterra, ed. Pino, Guido di (Milan, 1944), 108Google Scholarff.
42 Hervey, Christopher, Letters from Portugal, Spain, Italy and Germany, in the Years 1759, 1760, and 1761 (3 vols., 1785), I, 425Google Scholar.
43 Fischer, Christian August, Letters during a Journey to Montpellier (1806), 65Google Scholar.
44 Sennett, Richard, The Fall of Public Man (Cambridge, 1977)Google Scholar; Habermas, Jurgen, The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: An Inquiry into Category of Bourgeois Society, trans. Burger, Thomas (Cambridge, MA, 1989)Google Scholar.
45 Geijer, Erik Gustaf, Impressions of England 1809–10, 126Google Scholar.
46 Moritz, Karl Philipp, Journeys of a German in England in 1782, trans, and ed. Nettel, Reginald (1965), 72Google Scholar.
47 Austin, William, Letters from London: Written during the Years 1802 and 1803 (Boston, 1804), 173Google Scholar.
48 The Letter-Journal of George Canning, 1793–1795, ed. Jupp, Peter, Camden Fourth Series, vol. 41 (1991), 160Google Scholar.
49 Pichot, Amédée, Historical and Literary Tour of a Foreigner in England and Scotland (2 vols., 1825), I, 231Google Scholar.
50 Antoine, Louis, Caraccioli, marquis de, Voyage de la raison en Europe; par l'Auteur ies lettres récréatwes el morales (Compiègne, 1772), 164Google Scholar.
51 Archenholz, Johann Wilhelm von, A Picture of England, II, 107–8Google Scholar.
52 Sennett, Richard, The Fall of Public Man, 81Google Scholar.
53 Corinne ou L'ltalie (2 vols., 1807), II, 369Google Scholar.
54 Bonstetten, Charles-Victor de, The Man of the North, and the Man of the South; or the Influence of Climate (New York, 1964), 25Google Scholar.
55 Irving, Washington, Tales of a Traveller. By Geoffrey Crayon, Gent (2 vols., 1824), II, 75Google Scholar.
56 Oeuvres complètes de Diderot (20 vols., Paris, 1875), II, 383Google Scholar.
57 Pückler-Muskau, Prince, Tour in England, Ireland, and France, in the Years 1828 and 1829 (4 vols., 1832), IV, 185Google Scholar.
58 Dutens, Louis, Memoirs of a Traveller, Now in Retirement (5 vols., 1806), IV, 243Google Scholar.
59 Londres et les anglais par J. L. Ferri de St.-Constant (4 vols., Paris, An XII [1804]), I, 191Google Scholar.
60 Pückler-Muskau, , Tour in England, Ireland, and France, in the Tears 1828 and 1829, IV, 185Google Scholar.
61 Londres et les anglais par J. L. Fern de St.-Constant, I, 23.
62 Letters Written during a Residence in England Translated fiom the French of Henry Meister (1799). 189Google Scholar.
63 Hawthorne, Nathaniel, Our Old Home (2 vols., 1863), I, 151Google Scholar.
64 Letters from London: Written during the Years 1802 and 1803 (Boston, 1804), 30Google Scholar.
65 Sur les chemins de l'Europe (Paris, 1893), 41Google Scholar.
66 Esquiros, Alphonse, The English at Home, trans, and ed. Wraxall, Lascellese (2 vols., 1861), I, 272Google Scholar.
67 [Anon.], Remarks on the Letters, concerning the English and French (London, 1726), 23Google Scholar, in reply to Muralt, Béat Louis, Letters Describing the Character and Customs of the English and French Nations (1726), 39Google Scholar.
68 von Archenholz, Johann Wilhelm, A Picture of England, I, 40–1Google Scholar.
69 Pückler-Muskau, , Tour in England, Ireland, and France, in the Tears 1828 and 1829, III, 381Google Scholar.
70 Hervey, Christopher, Letters from Portugal, Spain, Italy and Germany, II, 498–9Google Scholar.
71 Lettere e Scritti inediti di Pietro e di Alessandro Verri, ed. Casati, Carlo (3 vols., Milan, 1879–1880), I, 384–5Google Scholar.
72 Memoirs of the Life and Peregrinations of the Florentine Philip Mazzei 1730–1816, trans. Marraro, Howard R. (New York, 1942), 117Google Scholar.
73 Lettere sull'Inghilterra, ed. Pino, Guido di (Milan, 1944), 361Google Scholar.
74 A Journal of Travels in England, Holland and Scotland, and of Two Passages over the Atlantic, in the Years 1805 and 1806 (2 vols., New York, 1810), I, 56Google Scholar.
75 Kielmansegge, Friedrich, Diary of a Journey to England in the Years 1761–1762, trans. Kielmansegg, Countess [née Philippa Sidney] (1902), 125–7Google Scholar.
76 Memoir and Correspondence of Mrs. Grant of Laggan, ed. Grant, J. P. (3 vols., 1844), I, 68Google Scholar.
77 Carr, John, The Stranger in Ireland; or, a Tour in the Southern and Western Parts of that Country, in the Tear 1805 (1806), 300Google Scholar.
78 Letters from Edinburgh; Written in the Years 1774 and 1775 (London, 1776), 66Google Scholarff; A Tour through the Northern Counties of England, and the Borders of Scotland (Bath, 1802), 56Google Scholar; Clayden, P. W., The Early Life of Samuel Rogers (1887), 184Google Scholar.
79 The Stranger in Ireland; or, a Tour in the Southern and Western Parts of that Country, in the Year 1805, 236, 251.
80 Tomalin, Claire, Mrs. Jordan's Profession: The Story of a Great Actress and a Future King (1994), 33Google Scholar.
81 Autobiography of Henry Taylor, 1800–1875 (2 vols., 1885), I, 212Google Scholar.
82 A Tour in Wales, and through Several Counties of England, including both the Universities, Performed in the Summer of 1805 (1806), 46Google Scholar.
83 Hemmings, F. W. J., ‘Stendhal: anglophile ou anglophobe?’, in Stendhal et l'Angleterre, ed. McWatters, K. G. and Thompson, C. W., (Liverpool, 1987), 5Google Scholar; Prawer, S. S., Coal-Smoke and Englishman: A Study of Verbal Caricature in the Writings of Heinrich Heine (1984)Google Scholar.
84 Austin, William, Letters from London: Written during the Years 1802 and 1803, 16–17Google Scholar.
85 Hamerton, Philip Gilbert, Human Intercourse (1884), 226Google Scholar, paraphrasing de Tocqueville's Democracy in America II, book 3, chapter 2.
86 Piozzi, Hester Lynch, Observations and Reflections Made in the Course of a Journey through France, Italy, and Germany (2 vols., 1789), I, 107Google Scholar.
87 von Watzdorf, Heinrich Maximilian Friedrich, Briefe zur Characteristic von England gohorig; geschrieben aufeiner Reise im fahre 1784 von Heinrich von Watzdorf (Leipzig, 1786), 56–7Google Scholar.
88 Edinburgh Review, 37 (1822), 310–12Google ScholarPubMed.
89 Phipps, C.H., later marquis of Normanby, The English in Italy (3 vols., 1825), II, 296Google Scholar.
90 de Montulé, Edouard, Voyage en Anglelerre et en Russie, pendant les annees 1821, 1822 et 1823 (2 vols., Paris, 1825), I, 11Google Scholar.
