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A collection of essays, written by well-known specialists in their fields, which deal with the problematic and ever-shifting boundaries between the public and the private spheres in Western Europe in the eighteenth century. It 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 and sentiments.