Recent Reading
Jan. 25th, 2004 08:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chickenfeetGeorges Duby (ed) A History of Private Life II - Revelations of the Medieval World
An interesting enough collection of essays on aspects of medieval domesticity with a heavy bias to France and Northern Italy and, perhaps inevitably, to the lives of the elite rather than the masses. So while some of the approaches used cast interesting light on gender roles in the aristocratic or merchant household they don't tell us much about equivalent issues in less illustrious families. I do find it interesting though how details of domestic architecture and inventories can cast a fresh light on prevailing social and political conditions.
Brian Dolan Ladies of the Grand Tour
Something of a curate's egg. It shows distinct signs of having been written from the leftovers of previous research (which it was). I found the sections on the intellectual and political lives of English women abroad, and the contrasts with their lives at home, most interesting. I could have lived without yet another account of the philanderings and gambling of the set around Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. Surely enough has already been written about this essentially dull group of people. For those who like that sort of thing, this book has more duchesses per square inch than a Trollope novel.
An interesting enough collection of essays on aspects of medieval domesticity with a heavy bias to France and Northern Italy and, perhaps inevitably, to the lives of the elite rather than the masses. So while some of the approaches used cast interesting light on gender roles in the aristocratic or merchant household they don't tell us much about equivalent issues in less illustrious families. I do find it interesting though how details of domestic architecture and inventories can cast a fresh light on prevailing social and political conditions.
Brian Dolan Ladies of the Grand Tour
Something of a curate's egg. It shows distinct signs of having been written from the leftovers of previous research (which it was). I found the sections on the intellectual and political lives of English women abroad, and the contrasts with their lives at home, most interesting. I could have lived without yet another account of the philanderings and gambling of the set around Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. Surely enough has already been written about this essentially dull group of people. For those who like that sort of thing, this book has more duchesses per square inch than a Trollope novel.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-01-25 02:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-01-25 02:40 pm (UTC)