The Fires of Lust: Sex in the Middle Ages

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Nor can it explore why explicit sexual content was acceptable in some genres and almost completely absent from others, even when those genres were being used by the same audience, or whether the absence of sex in situations where we might expect it to occur means it wasn’t occurring, or it was taken for granted that the audience would understand what was happening.

Harvey's specialism in the history of medicine provides particular depth, and is integrated with legal and cultural material to create a sparkling and convincing whole. By exploring their sex lives, The Fires of Lust brings ordinary medieval people to life, and reveals details of their most personal thoughts and experiences. Learned, fun, and full of surprises – a fascinating, wide-ranging guide to medieval sexual attitudes and experiences. It covers its chosen topic in an engaging fashion, presenting facts with little embellishment or external opinion, and does not seek to sensationalise the darker side of the subject of sex. Perhaps we can conclude [the chapter on sex in culture] only that, when it came to sex, medieval people were as confusing-and confused-as we are’.The modern survey, which asks a hundred people questions about their sex lives and then converts their answers into globalising statements about ‘the majority of people’ is just as unreliable as the medieval evidence. Some of it the content is bleak, of course; the chapters focusing on sex work and sexual violence, in particular, make for difficult reading. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. One of the best known was St Agnes, a thirteen-year-old girl who faced torments including imprisonment in a brothel and a miraculously unsuccessful burning before she was eventually stabbed to death.

or falling into the trap of believing an absence of evidence for some behaviours and attitudes means they didn’t happen.Because there was a law about something, detailing the relevant penalty doesn’t mean the punishment was always, or even usually, carried out. There were some moments, like referring to Harvey Weinstein as Harry, that held it back from 5 star.