Comprising an introduction and eight chapters by authors at the forefront of research on historical interiors, this volume takes an interdisciplinary approach to interpretations of interior spaces—built or imagined—located in Europe and North America during the Enlightenment era, 1660–1800. The aim of this book is to “offer an introduction to the history of interiors for those just starting out and a critical reflection on it for scholars immersed in the field” (p. xiii). This is a tricky balance to achieve and, in the text, some tensions can be detected between deep knowledge of the subject and the necessity to provide a brief overview. The book’s introduction by the editor, Stacey Sloboda, presents a concise outline of recent approaches to interiors in the Enlightenment age, characterized by studies of urban development and the growth of the city, the origins and rise of a consumer culture, distribution of consumer goods, and, importantly, how the interior self is narrated in these spaces as “comfort, convenience, privacy and expression of taste through objects and interiors became ideological values—seemingly self-evident cultural principles through which modern subjectivity was expressed” (p. 12).

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