The Pursuit of Pleasure focuses on rambling, an eighteenth and early nineteenth century form of urban exploration represented in texts such as Pierce Egan’s Life in London (1820-1). The author takes the figures and spaces of the ramble –  specifically the rambler and the cyprian (precursors to the Parisian flâneur and prostitute) and the clubs, sporting venues, operas, assembly rooms, streets, arcades of London’s St. James’s – as a starting point for considering the gendering of public space. Drawing on critical theory, geography and philosophy, The Pursuit of Pleasure extends and critiques the discipline of architectural history from a feminist perspective. The gendering of space is considered to be a complex and shifting series of gendered moves and looks between men and women, constructed and represented through spatial and social relations of consumption, display and exchange.

Publication details: Jane Rendell, The Pursuit of Pleasure:  Gender, Space and Architecture in Regency London, (London: Continuum, 2002).