The Age of Reason

With a New Introduction by Adam Nicolson

Summary

Harold Nicolson called his book "a gallery of portraits…of conflicting characters and successive states of mind." In it, he examines and presents these ideas and states of mind through the extraordinary people who were responsible for them: the duc de Saint Simon, elegant and unabashed social climber; the dashing "Prince" Potemkin, lover of Catherine the Great of Russia; Count Cagliostro, practitioner of "black arts"; Bernard de Fontenelle, brilliant essayist; Thomas Paine, inflamer of the masses; Jacques Casanova, lover, pornographer, and "con man." This single masterful volume synthesizes, through people and events, the eighteenth century ideals of reason and liberty, and the attacks on superstition, tradition, and authority which shook the world and produced a revolution in values.

About the Author

Harold Nicolson (1886–1968) was born in Tehran of British parents, educated at Oxford, served as a diplomat for twenty years, then returned to Britain to become a journalist, biographer, historian, and member of Parliament during World War II. His Diaries and Letters, 1930–1964, became a bestseller after his death. The famous gardens that he and his wife, Vita Sackville-West, created are a popular national trust property.

Adam Nicolson is the author of Sea Room, Power and Glory (God's Secretaries), and Men of Honour: Trafalgar and the Making of the English Hero. He lives in Sussex and at Sissinghurst Castle in Kent. He is the grandson of Harold Nicolson.