Publisher's Synopsis
"The Tender Passion" continues Peter Gay's eloquent study of the Victorian middle classes. His first volume, "Education of the Senses" dealt with sexual attitudes: this new volume concentrates on notions of love. Gay argues that the Victorians were able not only to enjoy their sexuality, but to know love in its most exalted sense. He begins with a compelling analysis of the separate love stories of two young men, one English, one German, and proceeds from there to a wide-ranging enquiry into what love meant to the Victorians. He supports his argument with references to a vast body of material, from philosophical treatises to medical texts, from letters and diaries to works of fiction. The book abounds with fascinating insights into the lives and writings of individual Victorians: Dickens, Stendhal, Balzac, Wagner, Oscar Wilde, Beatrice Potter, and Sidney Webb among them.
