Sex and the City of Ladies: Rewriting History with Cleopatra, Lucrezia Borgia and Catherine the Great

The City of Ladies, written by Christine de Pisan in 1405, was a book about protecting women's reputations from historical slights and misunderstandings. Over 600 years later, Lisa Hilton picks up the book and is visited by three historical women who want to know why they have been barred from the original city. Hilton reassesses the past, challenging misogyny and restoring history to its true form.

Format: Hardback
Length: 80 pages
Publication date: 03 September 2020
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers

The legendary "City of Ladies," where medieval writer Christine de Pisan left off, is picked up by the best-selling author and historian Lisa Hilton, who continues a discussion about gender and greatness that started more than six hundred years ago. Christine de Pisan wrote The City of Ladies in 1405 to protect women's reputations from historical slights and misunderstandings. The author is led by three spirits—Justice, Rectitude, and Reason—through countless lives in search of worthy citizens.

Over 600 years later, historian and novelist Lisa Hilton picks up the book and falls asleep, only to be visited by three great women from history: Cleopatra, Lucrezia Borgia, and Catherine the Great. They are not pleased. Having been denied access to the original "City of Ladies," they want to know why. They argue that it's time for a new author to pick up the pen.

What follows is a reevaluation of the past, in which deeds and reputations, rumors and reality are held up to the light, and history is wrested back from the distortions of misogyny.

Weight: 152g
Dimension: 119 x 184 x 19 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780008389604