Audiobook10 hours
How to Behave Badly in Elizabethan England: A Guide for Knaves, Fools, Harlots, Cuckolds, Drunkards, Liars, Thieves, and Braggarts
Written by Ruth Goodman
Narrated by Jennifer M. Dixon
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
()
About this audiobook
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.
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Reviews for How to Behave Badly in Elizabethan England
Rating: 3.8918918351351355 out of 5 stars
4/5
37 ratings3 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I saw this after I read How to be a Tudor, and this is just as entertaining. Ruth Goodman has quickly become one of my favorite authors!
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Sorry, Ruth, I really like your work in general, but this one is a bit of a slog. It's possible that I may have enjoyed it more if it had been a physical book, but I got bogged down for a long time in the insults section and it took a while to start up again. As per usual, meticulously researched and engaging writing. I was delighted to see the references to women fighters, and I think the conceit of the book works. It's extremely tailored to the time period, and extremely detailed, so if you're into Elizabethan manners, go for it.
Advanced Readers copy provided by Edelweiss. - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5audiobook nonfiction (social history - Shakespearean times)
Interesting and entertaining look at social customs during Elizabethan times, from the proper way to stand/walk/bow/doff your cap (based on your social class), to background about sword fighting and other modes of battle, how to hurl insults at people and pick a fight, table manners, and so forth. Would be most helpful to Shakespearean actors and scholars, but also interesting to the rest of us layfolk.