Kelleher's analysis of the discourse of conjugal heterosexual desire as a state of moral transcendence that increases sympathy and understanding toward others makes a valuable contribution to the fields of Eighteenth Century studies, Affect Theory and scholarship on the history of sexuality.... Kelleher's exploration of conjugal heterosexual desire as morally enriching is a thought-provoking study that covers new ground and broadens future approaches to literature produced in both the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

New Perspectives on the Eighteenth Century

Kelleher’s analysis is unique in its focus on the remediation of heterosexuality itself in these works.... Making Love presents a necessary argument that suggests challenging lines of inquiry into sexuality in literature and philosophy.

The Shandean

Paul Kelleher’s Making Love represents the deep and rich research of a topic that has been overlooked in much of the rage of interest in sexuality studies in the period. His study of the idealization of conjugal love in the early decades of the eighteenth century is nothing less than miraculous in the connections it makes and the arguments it articulates. Not only deeply learned on the topic of eighteenth-century philosophy, Kelleher also employs modern theorists like Michel Foucault and Jürgen Habermas, in order to place his argument in conversation with other historians of sexuality. The result is a deeply informed engagement with everyone who has written compellingly about these topics. This study takes its place among the very best books in this field.

George E. Haggerty, Distinguished Professor of English, University of California, Riverside

Making Love breaks new conceptual ground. Locating sexuality within a broad matrix of discursive fields, and tracing the underpinnings of a new conjugality to the discourses of sympathy and sociability, Kelleher shows how marriage became, in the eighteenth century and especially for men, the foundation for the public good. Making Love offers a powerful, shapeshifting companion to classic studies of domesticity, gender, and sensibility. By reading what he calls 'sentimental heterosexuality' through a queer lens, Kelleher brilliantly reshapes our understanding of English philosophy and fiction alike.

Susan S. Lanser, Professor of Comparative Literature, English, & Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Brandeis University

The analyses of literature and philosophy in this monograph will be of strong interest and use to eighteenth-century scholars working on a wide range of topics precisely because of the broad impact of Kelleher’s central thesis. . . . It may seem dramatic to suggest that Making Love changes everything, but given Kelleher’s rich lessons, together with the massive reach of heterosexual hegemony, I am convinced that it does.

Eighteenth-Century Fiction