Strange Antics
A History of Seduction
Failed to add items
Add to basket failed.
Add to wishlist failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
£0.00 for first 30 days
Strange Antics
Buy Now for £16.99
No valid payment method on file.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Janine Cooper Marshall
-
By:
-
Clement Knox
About this listen
When is seduction about more than just sex? In this brilliantly original history, Clement Knox explores these questions as well as the philosophy, legality, politics, art and literature of a force that underwrites our world.
In the first history of its kind, Clement Knox reassesses our idea of seduction in a narrative that moves from Casanova’s pursuit of pleasure, to America’s racialised seduction laws, to the Nazi propaganda designed to stoke sexual panic, and up to #MeToo.
Modern, big-thinking and enormously entertaining, Knox offers an extraordinary range of stories to chart the many guises of seduction, showing that our ideas about desire, courtship, and power have always developed in step with a changing world.
©2020 Clement Knox (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers LimitedListeners also enjoyed...
Critic reviews
‘Clement Knox has mastered the art of reader seduction with his intriguing and expertly woven web of gripping stories and insights. Strange Antics will hold the reader in its thrall’
Hallie Rubenhold, author of The Five
‘Erudite yet engaging … Though ambitious in its scope it is endlessly surprising in the individual stories it unearths. I found this Pandora’s box of sexual mores through the ages both thought-provoking and hugely entertaining’
Cathy Newman
‘Big and bold … His history of seduction examines a variety of narratives from scandalous memoirs to legal procedure … Impressive … There is much to praise here’
Sunday Times
‘A work of narrative nonfiction à la mode. Each chapter focuses on a single individual … Their lives and work are then used to elucidate the grander historical narrative … A blistering finale, drawing together themes of sexual politics, economics, law and the ordinary human desire for love and companionship into a vision of our present condition’
Times
‘Seduction is the subject of films and fiction, legal cases and human resources headaches – and yet its history has never been written. Knox rectifies this omission with this absorbing account … Erudite and above all entertaining’
Tatler
‘There is much to enjoy in Clement Knox’s ambitious first work … He writes with passion and insight.’
i Newspaper
‘A capacious new history of seduction … Produces a clutch of vivid biographical portraits and offers a pacey introduction to some canonical texts.’
Guardian
‘Rich history … Full of punchy political insight … Satisfying and interesting … And full of share-worthy anecdotes.’
Daily Telegraph
‘Fascinating …Knox is a natural biographer with a flair for unveiling startling anecdotes with evident relish … Exhilarating’
New Statesman
‘Extensive and entertaining’
Literary Review
What listeners say about Strange Antics
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall1 out of 5 stars
-
Performance3 out of 5 stars
-
Story1 out of 5 stars
- Liz
- 11-12-21
Long winded and unfocused
I was really looking forward to reading this but quickly it's academic tone and rambling story telling paled. I persevered but now i've finished I rather wish I hadn't.
The early chapters go into tedious detail on the lives of Casanova, Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley. Much on their life and actions and little reflection on what that means for the theme of the book.
Jazz, flappers and the sexual revolution of the 1960s, incels, pickup artists and #metoo are all dealt with perfunctorily in the last chapter. There might be a good book in here if it had been pruned hard, as it is, it feels like a first pass at a phd dissertation before their tutor suggested many rewrites.
The narration is generally good and professional. though many mispronounced words, which would have been nothing much if the general text had been less rambling.
So overall, not what I'd hoped and I'm considering getting a refund.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Glenn
- 17-09-22
Western Cultural History through a sexual lens
Not what I was expecting when I downloaded this book, a really interesting analysis of the history of Western Culture as viewed from the perspective of sexual liberation and Gender politics.
in 2022 many might take issue with the binary perspective of cisgender paradigms and a lack of transgender perspectives. But the text is an otherwise thorough and insightful look at the past few Centuries of cultural evolution and revolution.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!