LOVE AND THE ENGLISH

by Nina Epton ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A

Love and the French, published in 1960, was praised for its judicious blending of scholarship and wit. Love and the English, written, the author claims, in defense of neglected love and forgotten lovers, maintains the balance of the earlier book, proving to be both informative and entertaining. Nina Epton begins her study of English amatory habits in Anglo-Saxon times and, drawing on a rich amount of contemporary sources, traces English attitudes towards women, courtship, liaisons, marriage, down to the present. She deals with love's most devoted servants, relying on their diaries and letters, during the independence of the Renaissance, the splendor of the Elizabethan era, and the courtliness and romanticism of the 17th and 18th centuries. She characterizes each era with some special attitude toward love; the 20th century she calls simply ""the age of sex"". It is in discussing the modern scene that Miss Epton is at her most personal and serious: she feels that the English are a deeply romantic people but that this quality is often hidden by their down-to-earthness and attention to fact; but she also feels that the modern English marriage could do with a lot more spice. This could hardly be said of her own book though she is by no means frivolous.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: World

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1961

Categories: NONFICTION