Kale, S: French Salons

The salon, among the most enduring of French cultural institutions, is also one of the most misunderstood. Seen primarily as a venue for apolitical social gatherings, the salon's influence is generally believed to have ended during the French Revolution. Drawing on an impressive range of primary sources, Steven Kale challenges conventional thinking about the salon and offers an original, penetrating, and engaging analysis of this institution and of elite culture and society in France before, during, and after the Revolution.