Antoine Lilti

Scholars often focus on the period from 1750 to 1850 as the birth of “celebrity”, but this volume is the first to offer a sustained comparative study of celebrity in Britain and France during this period. Through a series of national and international case studies bringing together the fields of history, politics, literature, theater studies, and musicology, it unearths how celebrity was developed, theorized, and consumed on either side of the Channel.

Scholars often focus on the period from 1750 to 1850 as the birth of “celebrity”, but this volume is the first to offer a sustained comparative study of celebrity in Britain and France during this period. Through a series of national and international case studies bringing together the fields of history, politics, literature, theater studies, and musicology, it unearths how celebrity was developed, theorized, and consumed on either side of the Channel.