(Brief synopsis of the book)

The eighteenth century, which is known as the age of Reason and Enlightenment, was also a period in which passion and sentiment stirred the senses. In this book, the reader is transported to the emotional universe of a group of eighteenth-century Dutch authors, who made themselves responsible for steering the inner lives of their contemporaries in the right direction during a period of 'national decline’. Their enlightening-ethical lessons in life can be found in the so-called ‘spectatoriale geschriften’ (Spectatorial weekly magazines) around which this study revolves. In Spectators van hartstocht, the feeling rules, psychological insight and emotional vocabulary of these Dutch spectatorial authors are subjected to a further analysis. The study looks into the way in which they viewed various emotional phenomena, the words they used to describe these phenomena, their views on the extent to which ‘the passions’ were gendered and the ways in which their opinions on emotions were rooted in the period in which they lived. In the emotional culture of the Dutch spectatorial authors, notions of human happiness, divine intentions, natural inclinations, masculinity, femininity, power and excess were closely linked. In this book, the eighteenth century is presented as the period in which the Dutch nation developed its emotional identity, an identity that had to be characterised by masculinity and virtuousness.