Solitude has always had an ambivalent status: the capacity to enjoy being alone can make
sociability bearable but those predisposed to solitude are often viewed with suspicion or
pity. Drawing on a wide array of literary and historical sources David Vincent explores how
people have conducted themselves in the absence of company over the last three centuries. He
argues that the ambivalent nature of solitude became a prominent concern in the modern era. For
intellectuals in the romantic age solitude gave respite to citizens living in ever more
complex modern societies. But while the search for solitude was seen as a symptom of modern
life it was also viewed as a dangerous pathology: a perceived renunciation of the world which
could lead to psychological disorder and anti-social behaviour. Vincent explores the successive
attempts of religious authorities and political institutions to manage solitude taking readers
from the monastery to the prisoner's cell and explains how western society's increasing
secularism urbanization and prosperity led to the development of new solitary pastimes at the
same time as it made traditional forms of solitary communion with God and with a pristine
nature impossible. At the dawn of the digital age solitude has taken on new meanings as
physical isolation and intense sociability have become possible as never before. With the
advent of a so-called loneliness epidemic a proper historical understanding of the natural
human desire to disengage from the world is more important than ever. The first full-length
account of its subject A History of Solitude will appeal to a wide general readership.
