Promotional Information

Imagining Methodism in Eighteenth-Century Britain is well researched and will make a significant contribution to our understanding of Methodism, and to the tensions between reason and religion, in eighteenth-century studies. -- Laura Rosenthal, University of Maryland Redefining the relationship among word, flesh, and spirit in the Enlightenment by demonstrating Methodism's expressive urgency in a variety of putatively secular entertainments-drama, music, and erotic fiction-Misty Anderson's book must be read by anyone who wants to keep up with the best work in the field of eighteenth century studies. -- Joseph Roach, Yale University

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction: Longing to Believe: Methodism and Modernity
1. Historicizing Methodism
2. The New Man: Desire, Transformation, and the Methodist Body
3. Words Made Flesh: Fanny Hill and the Language of Passion
4. Actors and Ghosts: Methodism in the Theater of the Real
5. "My Lord, My Love": The Performance of Public Intimacy and the Methodist Hymn
6. A Usable Past: Reconciliation in Humphry Clinker and The Spiritual Quixote
Afterword: 1778 and Beyond
Notes
Bibliography
Index

About the Author

Misty G. Anderson is an associate professor of English at the University of Tennessee and author of Female Playwrights and Eighteenth-Century Comedy: Negotiating Marriage on the London Stage.

Reviews

The fruit of wide and perceptive reading, Imagining Methodism is not only forensically incisive, but (as one might expect from a Professor of English) written in a readable and pithy style with some nice turns of phrase. She has tapped and mastered a considerable range of relevant literature, historic and contemporary... Imagining Methodism brings refreshing and challenging insights to the area. -- Peter S. Forsaith Wesley and Methodist Studies Anderson's prose is witty, and she brings welcome rigor to a collection of squibs, rants, and sermons too often dismissed as incapable of sustaining serious thought. This is an important intervention- Imagining Methodism in Eighteenth-Century Britain will need to be reckoned with by all students of 'spirituality', enthusiasm', and 'secularity' in the long eighteenth century. -- Jasper Cragwall BARS Bulletin and Review ...[T]he range of sources Ms. Anderson brings to her study is impressive, as is her ability to navigate between the anti-Methodist literature and the philosophical discussions during the period. -- Brett C. McInelly The Scriblerian This is both a thoughtful and thought-provoking exploration, scrutinizing the ways in which perceptions of Methodism 'worked' in the British imagination... -- Jeremy Gregory Modern Literary Review