When Sir William Temple (1628–99) and Dorothy Osborne (1627–95) began their passionate love affair, civil war was raging in Britain, and their families—parliamentarians and royalists, respectively—did everything to keep them apart. Yet the couple went on to enjoy a marriage and a sophisticated partnership unique in its times. Surviving the political chaos of the era, the Black Plague, the Great Fire of London, and the deaths of all their nine children, William and Dorothy made a life together for more than forty years. Drawing upon extensive research and the Temples’ own extraordinary writings—including Dorothy’s dazzling letters, hailed by Virginia Woolf as one of the glories of English literature—Jane Dunn gives us an utterly captivating dual biography, the first to examine Dorothy’s life as an intellectual equal to her diplomat husband. While she has been known to posterity as the very symbol of upper-class seventeenth-century domestic English life, Dunn makes clear that Dorothy was a woman of great complexity, of passion and brilliance, noteworthy far beyond her role as a wife and mother. The remarkable story of William and Dorothy’s life together—illuminated here by the author’s insight and her vivid sense of place and time—offers a rare glimpse into the heart and spirit of one of the most turbulent and intriguing eras in British history.

This is Volume VI of nine in collection on Historical Sociology. Originally published in 1948, volume includes the writings of John Dryden, Alexander Pope and Joseph Addison from 1660 to 1744.

This is not a traditional international relations text that deals with war, trade or power politics. Instead, this book offers an authoritative analysis of the social, cultural and intellectual aspects of diplomatic life in the age of the Enlightenment and the French Revolution. It authoritatively illustrates several modes of Britain’s engagement with Europe, whether political, artistic, scientific, literary or cultural. Mori consults an impressively wide range of sources for this study including the private and official papers of 50 men and women in the British diplomatic service. Attention is given to topics rarely covered in diplomatic history such as the work and experiences of women and issues of national, regional and European identity This book will be essential reading for students and lecturers of the history of International Relations and will offer a fascinating insight in to the world of diplomatic relations to all those with an interest in British and European history.