HISTORY OF COURTSHIP: 800 Years of Seduction Techniques

Falling in love is exciting but it can too easily turn to disillusionment. Courtship means the rituals that prolong and preserve the magic, and in the medieval age of chivalry the rules of courtly love meant that the adoring knight never attained the beloved's favour. The author of this comprehensive guide to courtship, or should we call it seduction, starts with courtly love, though she points out that the idea of finding your "other half" goes back to Plato. In most earlier times, you were expected to find a mate in your immediate circle, but nowadays people travel to find romance and a significant proportion look for a partner online. Being late for a date is not a good look in the 21st century, but for most of the period under discussion people had no clocks and only the vaguest idea what time it was. With the loss of millions of young men in World War I, women began to see courtship as a competitive arena, taking the initiative themselves as feminism also endorsed women's equality. Marriage has often been a contested area, as private vows exchanged between a couple were deemed legally binding in the 15th century and later, without the interference of the Church, while sex has never been constrained by formal vows. Dancing has a long history of being an opportunity for courtship, with a famous example being Mr Darcy's refusal to dance with the heroine Elizabeth Bennet in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, though our hero later recants his rudeness. The author covers seductive clothing, love tokens, selling sex, love poems, and finally a chapter on "How to be a good life partner". 137pp, paperback, numerous black and white reproductions.