“Franklin was happy there in his house and garden at Passy. He firted with his neighbors Madame Helvétius and Madame Brillon: he embraced Voltaire in public amidst the tears and cheers of a distinguished audience; he continued his researches in natural philosophy, inventing bifocal spectacles, advocating daylight saving, and studying with passion the experiments of Dr. Mesmer and the aeronautics of Montgolfier.”
Nicolson’s study of the eighteenth century, a period of great intellectual ferment when powerful and often conflicting ideas captured the imaginations of the educated and the uneducated alike, vitally influenced the course of social and political history in Europe and America, and produced some of the strongest personalities of all time.
Author: Harold Nicolson
Title: The Age of Reason: The Eighteenth Century
Edition: First Edition, early printing
Published: New York: Random House, 1961
Physical Description: Hardcover; Octavo; 433p
Condition: Good condition dust jacket (price-clipped) with edge wear, light chipping, and toning—in new protector. Boards and spine very clean with bumping to corners and crushing at spine ends. Binding sturdy and square. Pages toned. Owner’s name on front free end-paper.
Comments: Handsome copy
