Eighteenth-century philosophy owes much to the early novel. Using the figure of the romance reader this book tells a new story of eighteenth-century reading. The impressionable mind and mutable identity of the romance reader haunt eighteenth-century definitions of the self, and the seductions of fiction insist on making an appearance in philosophy.

Acknowledgements Introduction: From Passions to Language: The Transformation of the Imagination Locke: Metaphorical Romances Behn: Romance from the Stage to the Letter Shaftesbury: Conversation and the Psychology of Romance Hume: Reading Romances, Writing the Self Richardson: How to Read Romance Notes Bibliography Index

REBECCA TIERNEY-HYNES is an Assistant Professor in the Department of English Language and Literature at the University of Waterloo, Canada. She has published essays in Eighteenth-Century Studies, SEL, and The Eighteenth Century: Theory and Interpretation.