Gender, Society and Print Culture in Late-Stuart England

Helen Berry, University of Newcastle, UK

• Contents: Preface; Introduction: Pressing anxieties; Coffee houses, print culture and the public sphere; Authenticity and women readers; The community of readers; Casuistry and the ambiguity of advice; Interpreting the body; Courtship dilemmas; Problems with sex; Questioning friendship; Conclusion; Bibliography; Index.

'The Athenian Mercury was the premier periodical venue for Augustan discussions of sex, gender and social mores, and it was both earlier and more explicit than the more famous Tatler and Spectator. Berry's new book does this fascinating and under-researched source full justice, and in the process provides new insights into late seventeenth-century London life.' Margaret Hunt, author of The Middling Sort: Commerce, Gender and the Family in England 1680-1780 and Prof. of History and Women's and Gender Studies, Amherst College 'Helen Berry is a compelling storyteller as well as a meticulous scholar. Her fascinating analysis of the contexts and contents of the Athenian Mercury, England's first agony column, provides unique and important insights into the intimate lives and personal anxieties of late seventeenth-century society.' Vivien Jones, School of English, University of Leeds '... an engaging book with excellent source material... Berry amply fulfils her purpose of demonstrating the richness of the Athenian Mercury...' The Library '... a meticulously argued, thoughtful and generally well-written volume, which offers insights into several dimly perceived areas of society in this period.' Continuity and Change '... a reasoned and cogent analysis of an under-researched periodical source that is rapidly becoming of interest to the scholarly community ... a welcome addition to studies of interrelationships between early modern English print culture and gender.' Albion '... engaging and clearly written... makes an important contribution to social history and to the history of popular print culture in England.' Clio 'Berry's book succeeds both as a didactic research tool for scholars as well as a compelling historical study for general readers. Her thorough, nuanced analysis of the nexus of print culture and gender relations in late Stuart England highlights the need for and enduring interests in gender studies across the centuries.' Libraries and Cultures ’Th