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hmalagisi's review
3.0
Action, adventure, drama, heartache, and love are what people crave when they read fictional stories. Yet, these elements are ever-present in the stories from the past. Each one of these topics could be explored in numerous ways when we are discussing history, but an area in history where romance and love were intermingled with politics was Elizabethan England. Queen Elizabeth I was obviously known as the “Virgin Queen” because she chose not to marry, but that did not mean that her subjects were banned from love and marriage. How did Elizabethans view the ideas of love, marriage, and sex? In this book, “Sex, Love, and Marriage in the Elizabethan Age”, R.E. Pritchard sets out to explore what love, marriage, and the intimate moments meant to Elizabethans of every class.
I would like to thank Pen and Sword Books and NetGalley for sending me a copy of this book. The Elizabethan era has been one of my favorites time periods to study so I am always interested in learning some new aspects about that period in history.
Pritchard begins his book by discussing what love and marriage meant for the commoners in Elizabethan England. These relationships were essential for how the average person identified themself in society. He explores the scandalous relationships, rapes, adulterous affairs, and love of every kind through popular literature and journals that lesser-known figures kept during this time. I found this section particularly fascinating since I have never seen a book about Elizabethan England explore the literature of the time with such a narrow lens. I think it would have been cool if Pritchard would have done mini historiographical studies into why certain poets and authors wrote what they did to give more depth to the words that they wrote.
The second half of this book explores the romantic lives of Queen Elizabeth I and her Court. This is where I felt a disconnect with what Pritchard wanted to achieve with this particular book. It felt like a review of Elizabeth’s life and her numerous suitors vying for her hand in marriage. There are so many books out today about Elizabeth’s love life that explored this topic in so much depth and by comparison, it made this section of Pritchard’s book feel weaker than the first half.
I wish Pritchard would have focused on perfecting the first half of the book and exploring the amorous relationships of the average Elizabethan. There are sparks of brilliance, but they are marred by the second half of this book. If Pritchard wanted to include the section about the queen’s love life, I wish he had it at the beginning as a chapter or two to make it very brief and to set the mood, then jump into the lives of average Elizabethans as a comparison.
Overall, I felt like this book had the potential to be something special, but Pritchard tried to do too much in one book. He is passionate about the subject that he is writing about, which is obvious to those who read this book, but he was over-ambitious. I think his original research and ideas were fascinating and I want more of that new angle to romance in Elizabethan England that he was presenting. If you want a unique look at love and marriage in the late Tudor dynasty, you should give, “Sex, Love, and Marriage in the Elizabethan Age” by R.E. Pritchard a try.
I would like to thank Pen and Sword Books and NetGalley for sending me a copy of this book. The Elizabethan era has been one of my favorites time periods to study so I am always interested in learning some new aspects about that period in history.
Pritchard begins his book by discussing what love and marriage meant for the commoners in Elizabethan England. These relationships were essential for how the average person identified themself in society. He explores the scandalous relationships, rapes, adulterous affairs, and love of every kind through popular literature and journals that lesser-known figures kept during this time. I found this section particularly fascinating since I have never seen a book about Elizabethan England explore the literature of the time with such a narrow lens. I think it would have been cool if Pritchard would have done mini historiographical studies into why certain poets and authors wrote what they did to give more depth to the words that they wrote.
The second half of this book explores the romantic lives of Queen Elizabeth I and her Court. This is where I felt a disconnect with what Pritchard wanted to achieve with this particular book. It felt like a review of Elizabeth’s life and her numerous suitors vying for her hand in marriage. There are so many books out today about Elizabeth’s love life that explored this topic in so much depth and by comparison, it made this section of Pritchard’s book feel weaker than the first half.
I wish Pritchard would have focused on perfecting the first half of the book and exploring the amorous relationships of the average Elizabethan. There are sparks of brilliance, but they are marred by the second half of this book. If Pritchard wanted to include the section about the queen’s love life, I wish he had it at the beginning as a chapter or two to make it very brief and to set the mood, then jump into the lives of average Elizabethans as a comparison.
Overall, I felt like this book had the potential to be something special, but Pritchard tried to do too much in one book. He is passionate about the subject that he is writing about, which is obvious to those who read this book, but he was over-ambitious. I think his original research and ideas were fascinating and I want more of that new angle to romance in Elizabethan England that he was presenting. If you want a unique look at love and marriage in the late Tudor dynasty, you should give, “Sex, Love, and Marriage in the Elizabethan Age” by R.E. Pritchard a try.
fourestxx's review
4.0
Sex, Love and Marriage in the Elizabethan Age gives a fascinating look into the other side of Elizabethan society – the private behaviours and scandals separate to the courtly romances that we are more familiar with.
For a society headed by a Virgin Queen, sex was commonly written about in both prose and poetry, and I loved the excerpts from original sources particularly the private diaries, letters and court documents.
The snippets from Simon Forman’s journal in particular were more scandalous than a modern day soap. Full of Elizabethan gossip, affairs and a lot more casual sex than you would expect from courtly ladies and gentlemen.
Some of the Elizabethan views on how children are conceived and consent are horrifying to modern audiences but give insight into their laws and beliefs, as well as the impact of religious teachings at the time.
It was also really interesting to learn more of women’s fashion and the introduction of non-gendered (or what they considered masculine) forms of dress, giving rise to criticism from male contemporaries. The female sexual revolution appears to have begun much earlier than I was aware.
A great book for academic purposes or research, rather than a more lightweight historical text, and a little heavy on poetry in places for my taste, but all round a really fascinating read!
I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
For a society headed by a Virgin Queen, sex was commonly written about in both prose and poetry, and I loved the excerpts from original sources particularly the private diaries, letters and court documents.
The snippets from Simon Forman’s journal in particular were more scandalous than a modern day soap. Full of Elizabethan gossip, affairs and a lot more casual sex than you would expect from courtly ladies and gentlemen.
Some of the Elizabethan views on how children are conceived and consent are horrifying to modern audiences but give insight into their laws and beliefs, as well as the impact of religious teachings at the time.
It was also really interesting to learn more of women’s fashion and the introduction of non-gendered (or what they considered masculine) forms of dress, giving rise to criticism from male contemporaries. The female sexual revolution appears to have begun much earlier than I was aware.
A great book for academic purposes or research, rather than a more lightweight historical text, and a little heavy on poetry in places for my taste, but all round a really fascinating read!
I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
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