The Sublime

the long version

The classic account of the search for grandeur in the art and literature of the Age of Reason. The concept of the sublime, appearing and reappearing in the history of Western thought, reached its apex in the 18th Century and paved the way for the Romantic Revolution. Here, from the perspective of our own day, is an assessment of the concept as it was developed by Hume, Burke, Sir Joshua Reynolds, and other contemporaries.