A unified description of solvation in dielectric media characterized by a static relative permittivity e is presented. The approach is based on probability distributions representing fluctuating dipole moments and electric fields and goes beyond the traditional mean-field approach. In addition to reproducing some standard results, we present an expression for the solvation free energy of a dielectric sphere immersed in an infinite dielectric medium. Furthermore, the solvation process is analyzed in detail by decomposing the solvation free energy into its energetic and entropic contributions. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.