Eduard Fuchs does not limit himself to contemplating the brilliant facade of the Gallant Century — he is interested in its underside. And there the idleness, coquetry and hypocrisy of the upper nobility isolated from the rest of the population are revealed. The idea of the Gallant Age is a garden of eden for the elite, in which pleasure is elevated to a cult and any fruits are allowed to be consumed. Those who are admitted to this garden are in an endless pursuit of pleasure. The only question is where their fantasies will lead them, and sometimes, in pursuit of new sensations, they do not immediately notice how they slip into primitive debauchery. And when is that all?it does happen, they do not hesitate to declare debauchery the norm. The term "Gallant Century" refers, strictly speaking, to the period of the reign of Louis XV (1715-1774) in France, but often, as Fuchs does, it is understood much more broadly both temporally and geographically, encompassing the end of the 17th and beginning of the 19th centuries and extending to other countries of Western Europe and even Russia. Eduard Fuchs (1870-1940) was a German cultural critic, historian, and writer.