How to Behave Badly in Elizabethan England: A Guide for Knaves, Fools, Harlots, Cuckolds, Drunkards, Liars, Thieves, and Braggarts

Every age and social strata has its bad eggs, rule-breakers, and nose-thumbers. As acclaimed popular historian and author of How to Be a Victorian Ruth Goodman shows in her madcap chronicle, Elizabethan England was particularly rank with troublemakers, from snooty needlers who took aim with a cutting "thee," to lowbrow drunkards with revolting table manners. Goodman draws on advice manuals, court cases, and sermons to offer this colorfully crude portrait of offenses most foul. Mischievous readers will delight in learning how to time your impressions for the biggest laugh, why quoting Shakespeare was poor form, and why curses hurled at women were almost always about sex (and why we shouldn't be surprised). Bringing her signature "exhilarating and contagious" enthusiasm (Boston Globe), this is a celebration of one of history's naughtiest periods, when derision was an art form.

Binding Type: Hardcover
Publisher: Liveright Publishing Corporation
Published: 10/30/2018
ISBN: 9781631495113
Pages: 320
Weight: 1.20lbs
Size: 9.50h x 6.30w x 1.10d

Review Citations: Kirkus Reviews 07/01/2018
Publishers Weekly 08/27/2018
Booklist 09/15/2018 pg. 14
Library Journal 10/15/2018 pg. 67