Murky Waters

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Murky waters challenges the refined image of British spa towns in the eighteenth century by uncovering darker and more ambivalent representations. Reconsidering mineral waters in their material and metaphorical aspects, it disassociates them from the ideas of cleanliness, transparency and well-being, while investigating their powerful effects on bodies, societies and culture. The book looks beyond the success story of Bath to take in the wider phenomenon of British spas in the long eighteenth-century. Closely examining the extensive primary sources for the two hundred spas and wells that existed across the period, it reveals a variety of descriptions of treatments, towns and facilities. Approaches from the history of health and literary criticism are combined in order to probe the medical discourse on the mineral components of waters. At the same time, the book explores the representation of spas in eighteenth-century British culture, giving a multi-layered perspective on this medical, cultural and social phenomenon. Digging deep into narratives of sick bodies, dangerous treatments, the gendered representations of spa users and the political and financial stakes for proprietors, Murky waters aims at launching further exciting research on this seemingly familiar yet often surprising topic.