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A review by fourestxx
Sex, Love and Marriage in the Elizabethan Age by R.E. Pritchard
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.