This was a very thorough covering of the topic but was more in the style of a journal article than standard non-fiction so I did not find it as engaging as other books which I have read about the same era. I think it is probably more suited for those carrying out academic research than for the casual reader looking for their own interest. It is an extremely detailed book however and if you can get past its dry tone and style then you definitely walk away more well-informed.

ARC provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
I don't remember requesting this title. Sadly I wasn't able to read it in time to give a proper review.

Such a wonderful concise and fun read. Really well researched and with excellent writing, a lovely book to add to your tudor nonfiction reads

Interesting in parts, but I'm afraid this was a little too dry, and didn't keep my interest. Fascinating topic, and one which naturally attracts the attention of the reader, but it wasn't written in an engaging style and came across as a more academic work or essay.
Thanks to the publisher for a review copy.

I loved this book it was imformative there was nothing I disliked. I have recommended it to friends which I know some of them went on to read the book.

My thanks to NetGalley and Pen And Sword for a copy of “ Sex, Love And Marriage In The Elizabethan Age “ for an honest review.

I find the majority of Pen And Sword historical publications really interesting ,and useful for my family history research.Unfortunately this book just wasn’t for me.It came across as a textbook rather than an entertaining read.
I’m sure the book would be very informative and interesting to others , just not for me .

this was a great nonfiction read, I enjoy the Elizabethan age and I thought it was a well-researched and well read read.

I have always been interested in the Elizabethan Age and so when I saw this book I thought it would be a different look at that time period. I did find the book interesting but I felt in some parts they should have explained the reason better then in other parts I felt they explained to much.

The quotes they used from people in the time period was interesting to read and really see what the people of the time thought. But even with the quotes it was to focused on male writers and not many females aspects of the age. I think the author needed more viewpoints from the female prospective then just the male.

Overall I enjoyed reading the book and found the information in it for interesting. I would recommend this book to people that are interested in the Elizabethan Age but to know it is more views of the males in the time period.

This is a survey of, as the title suggests, sex, love, and marriage in the age of Queen Elizabeth I. There aren't a whole lot of surprises here: women are almost always to blame for anything, the double standard of mens and women's sex lives is in full force, and so are sexually transmitted diseases. Pritchard uses a lot of quotations from people's diaries, poems, prose, etc. to show the regular attitude towards love, sex, and marriage- sometimes I found there were actually too many quotes for my taste. But there were a few interesting facts along the way that kept things interesting.

Interesting for historians, and those interested in relationships between men and women throughout the Elizabethan age, but very few surprises or new information.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

I’m afraid I found this book very difficult to read. There are a lot of facts but little story telling or analysis which I found frustrating.

The book was a good start but I expected a little bit more...analysis? The author gave a lot of good examples from certain plays, poetry, and those times in general but that was it. Maybe a sentence or two of analysis and then on to the next. It left me wanting more and not in a good way. I don't feel like I stepped away with a solid understanding or even a full view of sex and love within those times. If anything, it just led me on my own search. I think this novel is a good starting point but that's it. I won't say it was dry per se but I enjoyed reading the different passages but there could've been much more.

Don't you love it when the titles tell you EXACTLY what the book is about?

Well, I do. Especially when it comes to non-fiction.

This book is exactly what it says on the tin, a look at sex, love, and marriage in the Elizabethan Age. Featuring lots of primary resources and excerpts from diaries, letters, and writings of the age this book dives into what the romantic side of Elizabethan England entailed.

And honestly, it's fascinating. This isn't an era of licentiousness that is often portrayed in Puritan literature but a bright, sensual, and much more liberal world. The author shows the good and the bad and tries very hard not to make judgement calls Unfortunately, that approach sometimes backfires because there isn't enough context or explanation given -- especially considering that Elizabethan syntax, vocabulary, and writing style are very different from our own.

This is not a book for a casual reader. It can be difficult to read and I found that I had to take it in bits in order to make sure I was fully understanding things.

Ultimately, this book is a valuable resource for an author setting their books in the time and for Tudor England scholars.

I enjoyed reading it despite some difficulty so it gets:

Four stars

I don't think I can adequately express how bored I was reading this book. It read like a journal research article with blocks of information being strung along with no cohesive narrative.

I am so disappointed. The blurb promised a "lively" look at Elizabethan sexuality. Dude. No. Not lively at all. It was just facts and brief accounts of people through historians, plays, or other documents in a messy attempt to display the relationships between men and women during this time period. I didn't learn anything new and it honestly didn't tackle sexuality at all. Sure, it mentions people that had sex, but that's it. I don't see how that's taking a dive into Elizabethan sexuality. I could list all my sexual encounters right here, but that wouldn't tell you anything about society today other than a condensed list of all my mistakes.

I could go on and on about how much I didn't like this and how dull it was for a book that literally has the word "sex" in the title, but I don't need to spend anymore energy on this one.

A look at Sex, Love and Marriage in the Elizabethan Age. The facts are interesting, but the book is geared more for students of literature and history. The first chapter is hard to read with the quotes in Elizabethan English. It is filled with interesting facts, but hard to read.

I was kindly provided an e-copy of this book by the publisher and/or author via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley and am voluntarily posting a review.
This book was an alright introduction to sex, love, and marriage in Elizabethan times, but I felt it was a bit lacking. The information was there, but it wasn’t engaging in a way a book of this subject should be...it’s largely matter-of-fact and pretty dry. As a Tudor enthusiast, I found it an educational read, but not one I particularly enjoyed.

First line: It may seem rather odd, almost perverse, to write about sex, love and marriage in a time associated with, and ruled over by, a self-declared virgin queen with no personal, lived experience of any of these.

Summary: In his newest book, R. E. Pritchard, takes a look into sex, love and marriage during the Elizabethan era. He begins with a look at the lower classes of society using primary sources plus insights through the arts of the day like Shakespeare. As he moves up the scale we see the complicated life of the gentry, aristocracy and Good Queen Bess.

My Thoughts: I loved the idea of this book. I learned a lot about the ways of daily life and relationships during this time. But I felt like the writing and flow of the book was not very easy to read. I love to read non-fiction but this was more difficult than most of these type of books.

FYI: Good insight to love at the time of Elizabeth. Not one that can be read speedily even though it’s not very long.

Clearly this is well-researched, and it reads like quite a good dissertation. Unfortunately, the title made me think this would be a fun look at the Elizabethans, more like an adult-adult version of Horrible Histories. I'm sure this would make a good reference work for history and literature students, but for the average reader it's just too dry and academic.

The first section of the book, concerning sex and love, I found rather hard going as it is mainly quoting poems from the era. However, the book then got into its stride and told the story of a number of individuals - I find the personal stories to be much more interesting. All aspects of love and marriage are explored, from the expression of courtly love, to the prostitutes and bawdy houses to homosexual love. The final section concerns the life of the Virgin Queen herself, including her supposed love affair with Robert Dudley and her infatuation with Robert Devereux.

Over all an interesting read, well researched and, despite the use of odd modern slang expressions, well written using lots of contemporary sources. It presents a readable picture of a time when the social mores were very different from those of today.

Thank you to NetGalley and Pen & Sword History for allowing me access to the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is clearly a very well researched testimony of the private lives of people in Elizabethan times. The final section on Elizabeth herself is an interesting narrative which achieves a good balance between fact and readable summary. However the earlier part of the book I sadly found tough-going: it was so well-researched as to read like a dissertation, with every sentence broken up by quotes in old English. Due to the title I perhaps expected a fun look at the sex lives of Elizabethans, and would have happily trusted the author to summarise for the reader, without having to prove sources at every juncture. It could be a great reference for history students, etc, but I felt it is a little dry for recreational readers.

Non-fiction is troublesome for me. So much interests me but I then find myself somewhat disappointed in the slightly clinical, matter-of-fact-ness of it all. This book is well researched and has a great amount of information about the sexual behaviours of the Elizabethans, leading us all the way up to the 'Virgin' Queen herself and those in her court, with poems, tales and songs, etc., all giving us ideas of what it meant to different people.

Perhaps I'm just too used to reading (lighter) fiction to be able to properly engage with non-fiction these days, I don't know. I didn't dislike it - it's a fun topic, and the author has obviously done a lot of research into it - but I just didn't engage with it as much as other people have.