In the European Middle Ages, the harm a person’s gaze could cause was greatly feared. A stare was considered an act of aggression; intense gazing was believed to exert immense power over the individual observed. The love of looking, or scopophilia, is a common motif among female figures in medieval art and literature where it is usually expressed as a motherly or sexually interested gaze--one sanctioned, the other forbidden. Sandra Summers investigates these two major variants of female voyeurism in exemplary didactic and courtly literature by medieval German authors. Setting the motif against the period’s dominant patriarchal ethos and its almost exclusive pattern of male authorship, Summers argues that the maternal gaze was endorsed as a stabilizing influence while the erotic gaze was condemned as a threat to medieval order. Summers examines whether medieval artists and writers invented the idea of “ogling,” or whether they were simply recording a behavioral practice common at the time. She investigates how the act of ogling altered the narrative trajectory of female characters, and she also considers how it may have affected the regulation and restriction of women during Europe’s Middle Ages. Drawing upon contemporary gender studies, women’s studies, film studies, and psychology, Summers argues that the female gaze ultimately governs social formation. The exploration of the female gaze in period literature transcends medieval scholarship and impacts our understanding of the broader problem of gender perceptions and social structuring in Western civilization.

He treasures her innocence. He will woo her like a lover. But she will be his mistress, bought and well-paid. Bryn, the Earl of Caradoc, uses his wit and arrogance to hide memories of the whispers surrounding his father's painful, lingering, and scandalous death from a rake's disease. He longs to meet the woman he can love for the rest of his life, but she has not yet crossed his path. Determined to shield himself from his father's fate, he chooses virgins as his mistresses, rewarding them with handsome sums. Clare Easton, the orphaned daughter of a vicar, has two young brothers to raise and very few choices. Indeed, to provide them a good education, she has only herself to sell. Strong-willed, smart, and adaptable, she survived a sadistic stepmother and has the scars to prove it. For a good cause, she is strong enough to weather the loss of her reputation in the embrace of a handsome aristocrat. And yet . . . neither Clare nor Bryn is prepared for the sparks of desire or the passionate battle of wills that engulf them from the moment they meet. Determined to make her his willing lover, he spends days unlocking the doors between them--but finds himself losing ground as she advances inside his secret vaults as well. For Bryn, whose world is shuttered in narrow hues, Hell itself is falling in love with a commoner who refuses to stay with him when their contract ends. He is determined to keep Clare in his life, but he cannot put her at risk when he becomes the target of a killer. Nor can she bring herself to abandon the man she has come to love, whatever the danger to herself.

This fascinating cultural history, studded with vivid details bringing the experience of Victorian-era travel alive, explores the beginnings of urban tourism, and sets the phenomenon within a larger cultural transformation that encompassed fundamental changes in urban life and national identity.".

After his departure from New York two years ago to meet up with his almost-fiancée, Zayne Beckett is the last person Agatha Watson wanted to stumble upon in her travels as a reporter with the New York Tribune. Quite pathetically bedraggled, he clearly needs to be taken in hand and sent back East to his family. Although she no longer has feelings for him, Agatha realizes, by hook or by crook, she'll have to be the one to get the obstinate man home. Zayne has no desire to be taken anywhere and is prepared to drag his heels all the way home... until he finds himself slipping back into the familiar banter of his former friendship with Agatha. Once they arrive in New York, Zayne realizes Agatha's determined nose for news has earned her a few enemies, and he hopes to repay her help with some help of his own. When she rebuffs all his attempts to prove himself a knight in shining armor, the lengths to which they'll go to win this battle of wills lead to some memorable antics. Everyone else may think them a match, but nothing could be further from the truth--until Agatha finds herself in real trouble. Have these two stubborn, too-smart-for-their-own-good people been meant for each other all along?

Reprint of the original, first published in 1873.

Albert is an ageing labrador. He lives with his master, the Professor, an academic of some renown, in a small town somewhere in Germany, a community largely untouched by history and the larger world beyond. Much bereaved by the loss of his beloved mistress, the Professor’s wife, Albert leads a quiet existence observing the follies and foibles of the humans around him. The arrival of Fräulein Breitfuss, the new Head Librarian, a flamboyant young woman of dubious provenance, sends ripples through the slumberous town. The male populace is agog, the womenfolk suspicious… and Albert is not happy when she moves into the Professor’s life. Neither are the locals when she also attempts to shake the community out of its habitual lethargy with an Arts Festival. The affair between the Professor and the librarian takes a dramatic turn when the woman's unexpected and intricate past presents itself. Rendered homeless by the tragic end of the liaison, unable to renew love and fealty to a new master, Albert takes to the woods above the town, in imitation of imagined ancestors hunting in the wilds. Albert’s narrative weaves together episodes from the lives of a colourful cast of characters. Blending high farce and sombre realities, small vanities and impossible dreams, love found and love lost, the tale winds through a century of drama and conflict with a seemingly guileless innocence. Finally, Albert dimly perceives human lives as the tragicomic sum of accident, whim and fancy, rather than the orderly outcome of principles and high ideals. Fat Dog is narrated by Albert the Labrador, but is not a traditional 'pawtobiography'. As the tale proceeds, the canine voice gradually becomes merely that of a raconteur, allowing the events and episodes to unfold on their own, with occasional and detached musings on the human condition. It is an enjoyable read for any fans of fiction that offers a quirky insight into human nature.

While most people today take hygiene and medicine for granted, they both have had their own history. We can gain deep insights into the pre-modern world by studying its health-care system, its approaches to medicine, and concept of hygiene. Already the early Middle Ages witnessed great interest in bathing (hot and cold), swimming, and good personal hygiene. Medical activities grew over time, but even early medieval monks were already great experts in treating the sick. The contributions examine literary, medical, historical texts and images and probe the information we can glean from them. The interdisciplinary approach of this volume makes it possible to view this large field in a complex and diversified manner, taking into account both early medieval and early modern treatises on medicine, water, bathing, and health. Such a cultural-historical perspective creates a most valuable bridge connecting literary and scientific documents under the umbrella of the history of mentality and history of everyday life. The volume does not aim at idealizing the past, but it definitely intends to deconstruct modern myths about the 'dirty' and 'unhealthy' Middle Ages and early modern age.