I could put in lotsa quotes from the Durants chapter cited, or go to the attic for Dr. Albert Schweitzer's book, but it wouldn't matter would it now? If they find Calvin dour and stultifying they must be godless leftists.
The improvements in living conditions in all protestant controlled city states were remarkable, but what does that have to do with being enemies of pleasure?
Not Calvin alone, but John Knox, Zwingli, Martin Luther in his later years, Cotton Mather, Jonathan Edwards et al.
The whole of the Reformation was about strictness, discipline, attending to ones duties to God and to your fellow man. If you were enjoying yourself, you were obviously neglecting one or the other.
So9
You appear to believe that it is impossible to attend to one's duties and enjoy yourself at the same time. I would dispute that position. Let me ask this: is not possible to remain faithful to one's spouse and still enjoy one's self? Is it possible to enjoy a fine meal or fine wine without resorting to gluttony or druneness? Is it possible to enjoy the company of one's neighbor without taking advantage of him?
You pose Christian duty and pleasure as being mutually inconsistent. That is an erroneous position and certainly not a Calvinistic position. As a Calvinist, I would say that one's seeking of pleasure is always subservient to one'e duty to love God and one's neighbor. Nonetheless, within that framework we are able to have a pretty enoyable time.