Rolandino Ronchaia (in 14th-century Venice) might be described as intersex, a man who, because of a hormonal imbalance, was more feminine than masculine. Katherine Harvey’s The Fires of Lust seeks to counterbalance misconceptions about the supposed depravity of the Middle Ages by means of an impressively wide-ranging survey of medieval sexual practices and attitudes . Book Review: Jack Kerouac’s “Pic” — Last But Not Least In "On the Road," Jack Kerouac voiced a longing to be “. The strengths and weaknesses of the book can be summed up by the fact that ‘sex in literature’ is covered in 6 pages. He was socialized as a man, even though he had breasts and it was generally agreed that he looked more female than he did male.

The story of Simon the goat-lover is just one of hundreds of weird and wonderful anecdotes that rub together in Katherine Harvey’s jaunty study of late-medieval sex . A culture in which clerics commissioned sheelagh-na-gigs – graphic carvings of women displaying their genitals – to adorn their holy buildings perplex us. I can’t think of more brilliant Christmas book to give to one’s significant other if they have even a passing interest in medieval Europe or the rich and extraordinary sex life of its inhabitants.Also of importance are the vast amount of treatises written by clerics, but to what degree these sexual prescriptions written by nerds in monasteries were known by the regular populace, let alone how often they were respected, is hard to know. She has written an entertaining but thoughtful study, descriptive without becoming didactic or pedantic. There was a strong desire to separate the Virgin from not only the indignities of sexual intercourse, but the related contaminations of the female body, so that it was widely believed that the birth of Christ was free from pain and from the polluting effects of afterbirth. 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.

Like us, medieval people faced challenges in finding a suitable partner or trying to get pregnant (or trying not to). A distinction was also made between a woman who had sex for pleasure and ones who did so for financial need and desperation. 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.

It’s so tempting to think we’ve advanced as a society, but so many of the things I thought of as backwards in this book are still held as “true” by a good number of people these days. By exploring their sex lives, the book brings ordinary medieval people to life, and reveals details of their most personal thoughts and experiences.

This is a great book on a little covered area of Medieval history engaging and full of useful information. This was great as an audiobook and contained many examples and direct citations that gave a nice glimpse into everyday life. The Fires of Lust: Sex in the Middle Ages was published in October 2021 by Reaktion Books, and is distributed by University of Chicago Press in the US. The medieval Magdalene was a composite of several biblical Marys and bore little resemblance to the woman depicted in the Gospels. This lively, engaging study combines a scholarly rigour with a sharp eye for telling detail, told in a fluid style that keeps the pages turning.

The writing style is smooth and the book is a real page turner, full of snippets of everyday life from this period. The style of the writing is engaging – it takes the subject matter and makes it fun, whilst still treating some of the very serious subject matter with the sensitivity it deserves.

Perhaps the ultimate embodiment of such penitence was Mary Magdalene, whose cult exploded in popularity around 1200. Each of the chapters is very clear and well-defined, and there is very little repetition - a personal pet peeve of mine that books like this are sometimes prone to. Harvey is careful to balance her story: Christian Europeans ‘othered’ non-Christians, believing preposterous stories about their bodies and sexuality, but Jews and Muslims did the same to Christians. This means we get an image of extreme violence and idealised stereotypes, respectively, and rarely get a glimpse into what “regular sex” would have been like.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’. She holds a PhD in Medieval History from Kings College London and has published widely on medieval topics, including sexuality, gender, emotions and the body.