"This is a major achievement, an artfully written and carefully articulated contribution to the theory of literary history, and a powerful interpretation of eighteenth-century literature with which all scholars in the field will have to contend."—Philosophy and Literature

• Introduction; 1. On textual production; 2. The urbane sublime; 3. Transcendental aesthetics; 4. The discovery of consciousness; 5. The economy of sensibility; 6. Goldsmith's endings; 7. The Vicar of Wakefield; 8. She Stoops to Conquer; 9. Sheridan's semiotics; 10. Beaumarchais's stagecraft; 11. Sterne's stories; 12. Wordsworth's old gray stone; 13. Touchstones; Notes; Index.

"This is a major achievement, an artfully written and carefully articulated contribution to the theory of literary history, and a powerful interpretation of eighteenth-century literature with which all scholars in the field will have to contend."—Philosophy and Literature

• Introduction; 1. On textual production; 2. The urbane sublime; 3. Transcendental aesthetics; 4. The discovery of consciousness; 5. The economy of sensibility; 6. Goldsmith's endings; 7. The Vicar of Wakefield; 8. She Stoops to Conquer; 9. Sheridan's semiotics; 10. Beaumarchais's stagecraft; 11. Sterne's stories; 12. Wordsworth's old gray stone; 13. Touchstones; Notes; Index.

"This is a major achievement, an artfully written and carefully articulated contribution to the theory of literary history, and a powerful interpretation of eighteenth-century literature with which all scholars in the field will have to contend."—Philosophy and Literature

• Introduction; 1. On textual production; 2. The urbane sublime; 3. Transcendental aesthetics; 4. The discovery of consciousness; 5. The economy of sensibility; 6. Goldsmith's endings; 7. The Vicar of Wakefield; 8. She Stoops to Conquer; 9. Sheridan's semiotics; 10. Beaumarchais's stagecraft; 11. Sterne's stories; 12. Wordsworth's old gray stone; 13. Touchstones; Notes; Index.