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This volume is an account of the curiously passionate but platonic friendship that arose between English writer and diarist John Evelyn (1620-1706) and Margaret Godolphin (1652-1678). Godolphin was a maid of honor in the court of King Charles II of England. When they met, Evelyn was a civil servant and horticulturalist, 48 years old, and had been married for more than two decades; Godolphin was 17. Evelyn's friendship with Godolphin is recorded in a diary, which he says he designed "to consecrate her worthy life to posterity". Set against the vivid background of the court and the great gardens of the time, this work provides insights into the sexual and spiritual worlds of early modern England.
"John Evelyn ranks with friend Samuel Pepys as one of the best loved of English diarists. He was a virtuoso: a man of letters and of science, an intellectual who was also devoutly spiritual." "In 1669, Evelyn began the most controversial episode of his life: a passionate 'seraphic' friendship with Margaret Godolphin, a maid of honour at the court of Charles II, 30 years his junior." "Set against the background of the court and the great gardens of the time, Transformations of Love is the story of a complex and ambiguous relationship. Was Evelyn as much a sexual predator as the rakes he professed to despise? Or was this truly a 'holy friendship'? Drawing on newly-discovered evidence, Frances Harris provides unexpected new insights into the sexual and spiritual worlds of Restoration England."--Jacket.
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Previews available in: English
Subjects
Biography, Court and courtiers, Diarists, Friends and associates, History, Social life and customs, Women, Liefdesparen, Literary, English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, LITERARY CRITICISM, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY, European, Evelyn, John, 1620-1706., Godolphin, Margaret Blagge, 1652-1678 -- Friends and associates., Evelyn, John, 1620-1706 -- Friends and associates., Godolphin, Margaret Blagge, 1652-1678., Diarists -- Great Britain -- Biography., Women -- Great Britain -- Biography., Great Britain -- Court and courtiers -- History -- 17th century., England -- Social life and customs -- 17th century., Great Britain -- Court and courtiers -- Biography., Evelyn, john, 1620-1706, Man-woman relationships, Authors, biography, Women, great britain, England, social life and customs, Great britain, court and courtiers, Women, biography, Great britain, history, stuarts, 1603-1714, English AuthorsPlaces
England, Great BritainTimes
17th centuryShowing 4 featured editions. View all 4 editions?
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1
Transformations of Love: The Friendship of John Evelyn and Margaret Godolphin
May 12, 2004, Oxford University Press, USA
in English
0199270325 9780199270323
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2
Transformations of Love: the Friendship of John Evelyn and Margaret Godolphin
2003, Oxford University Press
in English
1280759267 9781280759260
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3
Transformations of Love: The Friendship of John Evelyn and Margaret Godolphin (Oxford Paperback Reference)
February 15, 2003, Oxford University Press, USA
in English
0199252572 9780199252572
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4
Transformations of love: the friendship of John Evelyn and Margaret Godolphin
2002, Oxford University Press
in English
0199252572 9780199252572
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