<!doctype html public «-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en»> http-equiv=content-type> Around 1800 European authors became manifestly interested in distant and different cultures, an interest that extended to fictional literature and aesthetics. This volume examines the poetic and aesthetic innovation that emerged from involvement with ethnological and anthropological phenomena, and the extent to which literature and aesthetics, in turn, contributed to the contemporary study of mankind.