Description: A study of the practice of vivid, self-directed imagination in the optimistic spirit of the early-modern French writers.
Review Quotes: "John D. Lyons's brilliant study fills a lacuna in our knowledge of early modern views of the imagination, significantly advancing inquiry in this area. Although the concept of the imagination is said to have emerged with the Enlightenment's emphasis on creativity, Lyons revises this modernist perspective, focusing on the uses of the imagination from Montaigne to Rousseau."--Renaissance Quarterly