The first book to study and compare the concept of celebrity in France and Britain from 1750 to 1850, offering a transnational perspective. It places in dialogue the growing field of celebrity studies in the two countries, especially by engaging with Antoine Lilti's seminal work, The Invention of Celebrity.
Scholars often focus on the period from 1750 to 1850 as the birth of “celebrity”, but this volume is the first to offer a sustained comparative study of celebrity in Britain and France during this period. Through a series of national and international case studies bringing together the fields of history, politics, literature, theater studies, and musicology, it unearths how celebrity was developed, theorized, and consumed on either side of the Channel.
