The Game of Love in Georgian England: Courtship, Emotions, and Material Culture

Courtship in Georgian England was a tactical game, invigorating sport, and perilous journey across a turbulent sea, with new insights into the making and breaking of relationships. The book demonstrates the importance of courtship to studies of marriage, relationships, and emotions in history and how we write histories of emotions using objects.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 256 pages
Publication date: 30 June 2022
Publisher: Oxford University Press

Courtship in Georgian England was a pivotal phase in the life cycle, perceived as a strategic game, an exhilarating sport, and a perilous voyage across a turbulent sea. This volume vividly brings to life the emotional journey of courtship, showcasing the words and objects chosen by men and women to navigate this potentially fraught process. It offers fresh insights into the formation, growth, and dissolution of relationships, beginning with the initiation of courtships through the language of love, the cultivation of intimacy through the exchange of love letters, and the sensory engagement with love tokens such as flowers, portrait miniatures, and locks of hair. Moreover, the book traces the gradual modernization of romantic customs throughout the Georgian era, particularly with the advent of the printed Valentine's card, revealing how love transformed into a commercial enterprise. The book concludes with the rituals of disintegration when engagements faltered and pursuit of damages for breach of promise in civil courts.

The Game of Love in Georgian England unites love letters, diaries, valentines, and marriage proposals from sixty courtships sourced from thirty archives and museum collections, alongside a diverse array of sources including ballads, conduct literature, court cases, material objects, newspaper reports, novels, periodicals, philosophical discourses, plays, poems, and prints. This comprehensive collection creates a vivid social and cultural history of romantic emotions. The book underscores the significance of courtship in the study of marriage, relationships, and emotions in history and demonstrates how we write histories of emotions through objects. Love emerges as a practice enacted by couples through specific socially and historically determined rituals.

Weight: 374g
Dimension: 155 x 232 x 24 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780192870995