The Comforts of Home in Western Europe, 1700–1900

In 2001, John Crowley argued that the early modern period witnessed the ‘invention of comfort’, as the term was re-conceptualised during the period to incorporate physical comfort as well as affective comfort. Since then, a number of academics have used these ideas in their studies and some have even argued that there was a ‘comfort revolution’. This book is part of this broader switch, but expands the lines of conversation by focusing on comfort in the home and through objects and people. Bringing together a wide range of well-established and newly emerging scholars, this book looks at comfort in the home through myriad perspectives. The chapters are each unique and many of them will become must reads for researchers of the domestic sphere.