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Copyright of Estudios de Historia de España is the property of Pontificia Universidad Catolica Argentina and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Military Science Review / Hadtudományi Szemle is the property of National University of Public Service and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Reexamining the eighteenth-century French picturesque garden, the author argues that patrons, designers, and theoreticians appropriated the most seductive form of entertainment – the gambling session – to animate the picturesque garden stroll. The garden emerges as a sophisticated game where natural and artificial qualities of the designed landscapes were geared to produce the “pleasures of surprise.” Strolling thus emerges as a multi-sensorial experience predicated on the performance of surprise. The act of being surprised was transient, an evanescent reaction that startled conventional appearances, but it is exactly this ephemeral moment that was considered emotionally authentic. The performance of surprise thus re-ordered the sensibilities of both patrons and visitors so that the picturesque garden became a venue to develop a “sixth” sense, Taste, the ability to exercise aesthetic discernment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]