Irish literary salons of the long eighteenth century

Literary/ Cultural Context Essay

Amy Prendergast (Trinity College Dublin)

Ed. by Anne Markey, Dublin City University
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.4: Irish Writing and Culture, 400-present.
Vol. editors: Sorcha de Brún (University of Limerick), Nicole Kennedy (University of Newcastle), Anne Markey (Dublin City University), Ian Campbell Ross (Trinity College Dublin), Sean Seeger (University of Essex), Eoghan Smith (Carlow College), Sinéad Sturgeon (Queen's University Belfast)

Domains

Literature Topic
Movements, styles and periods (literature)

Dates

Date of occurrence c.1700- c.1800

Places

Ireland, Republic of (Eire) (Location)
France (Involved)

Resources

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Introduction

Important literary salons began to emerge in seventeenth-century France, and their fame increased with the eighteenth-century hostesses, or salonnières, the Marquise du Deffand, Madame Geoffrin, and Mademoiselle Lespinasse. Throughout eighteenth-century Europe, literary salons played a major role in polite life, allowing writers and social elites to come together in mixed-gender gatherings, usually held in luxurious settings. In addition to their role in promoting elite sociability for both men and women, these salons also played a significant role in literary creation, evaluation and circulation. Salons flourished in Britain, and a key example of these were the London salons attended by a group of literary men and women known as the Bluestockings, whose hostesses included Elizabeth Montagu and Frances Boscawen. Irish men and women contributed to both the French and British salons as participants and, on...

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2008 words

Citation: Prendergast, Amy. "Irish literary salons of the long eighteenth century". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 10 April 2013 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=19346, accessed 18 December 2025.]