The Smile Revolution: In Eighteenth Century Paris - Hardcover

Jones CBE, Colin

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0198715811 ISBN 13: 9780198715818

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2014

Synopsis

You could be forgiven for thinking that the smile has no history; it has always been the same. However, just as different cultures in our own day have different rules about smiling, so did different societies in the past. In fact, amazing as it might seem, it was only in late eighteenth century France that western civilization discovered the art of the smile. In the 'Old Regime of Teeth' which prevailed in western Europe until then, smiling was quite literally frowned upon. Individuals were fatalistic about tooth loss, and their open mouths would often have been visually repulsive. Rules of conduct dating back to Antiquity disapproved of the opening of the mouth to express feelings in most social situations. Open and unrestrained smiling was associated with the impolite lower orders.

In late eighteenth-century Paris, however, these age-old conventions changed, reflecting broader transformations in the way people expressed their feelings. This allowed the emergence of the modern smile par excellence: the open-mouthed smile which, while highlighting physical beauty and expressing individual identity, revealed white teeth. It was a transformation linked to changing patterns of politeness, new ideals of sensibility, shifts in styles of self-presentation - and, not least, the emergence of scientific dentistry. These changes seemed to usher in a revolution, a revolution in smiling. Yet if the French revolutionaries initially went about their business with a smile on their faces, the Reign of Terror soon wiped it off. Only in the twentieth century would the white-tooth smile re-emerge as an accepted model of self-presentation.

In this entertaining, absorbing, and highly original work of cultural history, Colin Jones ranges from the history of art, literature, and culture to the history of science, medicine, and dentistry, to tell a unique and untold story about a facial expression at the heart of western civilization.

About this title

About the Author

Colin Jones is Professor of History at Queen Mary University of London. He has published widely on French history, particularly on the eighteenth century, the French Revolution, and the history of medicine. His many books include The Medical World of Early Modern France (with Lawrence Brockliss, 1997), The Great Nation: France from Louis XV to Napoleon (2002), and Paris: Biography of a City (2004: winner of the Enid MacLeod Prize). He is a Fellow of the British Academy and Past President, Royal Historical Society.

Review

"The Smile is an education and an entertainment, a rare enough pairing, but the more so in this niche, not to say cavity, subject. Dentistry has never had an extensive popular literature, but Colin Jones's book, with its charming cover of the first painted smile in Paris, could spark a revolution in its subject. ... Colin Jones drills into his subject with wit, clarity and fine theatrical flourish, and leads one to reflect on why the severed heads displayed in the Place de la Concorde had some of the flashiest smiles of all." --The Times

"The intriguing untold story of how we learned to smile." --The Bookseller

"You will never look at an eighteenth-century portrait in the same way after you read these pages so filled with verve, wit, and insight. Colin Jones accomplishes the extraordinary feat of changing our view of the ordinary by showing us how teeth, smiles and laughing all gained profound significance." --Lynn Hunt, author of Inventing Human Rights

"[A] marvellous, engaging and constantly enlightening study." --Literary Review

"compelling Cheshire cat of a book" - The Guardian

"The Smile is an education and an entertainment, a rare enough pairing, but the more so in this niche, not to say cavity, subject. Dentistry has never had an extensive popular literature, but Colin Jones's book, with its charming cover of the first painted smile in Paris, could spark a revolution in its subject. ... Colin Jones drills into his subject with wit, clarity and fine theatrical flourish, and leads one to reflect on why the severed heads displayed in the Place de la Concorde had some of the flashiest smiles of all." --The Times

"The intriguing untold story of how we learned to smile." --The Bookseller

"You will never look at an eighteenth-century portrait in the same way after you read these pages so filled with verve, wit, and insight. Colin Jones accomplishes the extraordinary feat of changing our view of the ordinary by showing us how teeth, smiles and laughing all gained profound significance." --Lynn Hunt, author of Inventing Human Rights

"[A] marvellous, engaging and constantly enlightening study." --Literary Review

Chosen as a 2014 Best Book of the Year by Slate, The Guardian, The Independent, and The New Statesman

"Compelling Cheshire cat of a book" - The Guardian

"The Smile is an education and an entertainment, a rare enough pairing, but the more so in this niche, not to say cavity, subject. Dentistry has never had an extensive popular literature, but Colin Jones's book, with its charming cover of the first painted smile in Paris, could spark a revolution in its subject. ... Colin Jones drills into his subject with wit, clarity and fine theatrical flourish, and leads one to reflect on why the severed heads displayed in the Place de la Concorde had some of the flashiest smiles of all." --The Times

"The intriguing untold story of how we learned to smile." --The Bookseller

"You will never look at an eighteenth-century portrait in the same way after you read these pages so filled with verve, wit, and insight. Colin Jones accomplishes the extraordinary feat of changing our view of the ordinary by showing us how teeth, smiles and laughing all gained profound significance." --Lynn Hunt, author of Inventing Human Rights

"[A] marvellous, engaging and constantly enlightening study." --Literary Review

"The most original approach to history in years ... [Colin Jones] had written one of the most absorbing and unusual history books imaginable" - Michael Prodger, Sunday Times

"Colin Jones knows as much about eighteenth-century France as anyone alive, and in this study he brings together his prodigious learning and robust curiosity to produce a book that should bring a smile to even the most sullen scholarly face."--The American Historical Review

"This short but dense book represents the "histoire des mentalites" at its best, as Professor Jones has successfully managed to weave into a single fluid, coherent, and elegant narrative whole chapters of social history, the history of medicine, of the body and emotions..."--H-France Review

"
"In this vividly written book, Colin Jones recounts the unnoticed history of the smile in eighteenth-century France Jones effortlessly demonstrates how certain ideas about emotions can spread across domains and be embodied in diverse practices, to the point where idea and practice become rooted in common sense, in an emotional style. Jones effortlessly demonstrates, as well, that history can sweep such commonsense configurations into the dustbin, to disappear from view until rediscovered by a gifted historian."--Journal of Modern History

Chosen as a 2014 Best Book of the Year by Slate, The Guardian, The Independent, and The New Statesman

"Compelling Cheshire cat of a book" - The Guardian

"The Smile is an education and an entertainment, a rare enough pairing, but the more so in this niche, not to say cavity, subject. Dentistry has never had an extensive popular literature, but Colin Jones's book, with its charming cover of the first painted smile in Paris, could spark a revolution in its subject. ... Colin Jones drills into his subject with wit, clarity and fine theatrical flourish, and leads one to reflect on why the severed heads displayed in the Place de la Concorde had some of the flashiest smiles of all." --The Times

"The intriguing untold story of how we learned to smile." --The Bookseller

"You will never look at an eighteenth-century portrait in the same way after you read these pages so filled with verve, wit, and insight. Colin Jones accomplishes the extraordinary feat of changing our view of the ordinary by showing us how teeth, smiles and laughing all gained profound significance." --Lynn Hunt, author of Inventing Human Rights

"[A] marvellous, engaging and constantly enlightening study." --Literary Review

"The most original approach to history in years ... [Colin Jones] had written one of the most absorbing and unusual history books imaginable" - Michael Prodger, Sunday Times

"Colin Jones knows as much about eighteenth-century France as anyone alive, and in this study he brings together his prodigious learning and robust curiosity to produce a book that should bring a smile to even the most sullen scholarly face."--The American Historical Review

"This short but dense book represents the "histoire des mentalites" at its best, as Professor Jones has successfully managed to weave into a single fluid, coherent, and elegant narrative whole chapters of social history, the history of medicine, of the body and emotions..."--H-France Review

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Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0198715811
• ISBN 13: 9780198715818
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 246