This collection of essays, written by specialists in their fields, examines and challenges the notion that there was a clear distinction between the emerging public sphere, which mediated between the State and individuals and provided a forum for Enlightenment debates, and the private, intimate or familial sphere. The essays focus on political, legal, historiographic, literary and gender issues in an attempt to create a more subtle and differentiated view of how men and women established and understood various public and private domains, and used the languages of public and private actions...