Description
Book SynopsisWith wit, wisdom, and a sharp scalpel, Jack Hartnell dissects the medieval body and offers a remedy to our preconceptions.
Trade Review"A thick, spicy plum pudding of a book." -- Barbara Newman - London Review of Books
"Jack Hartnell tells [an] extraordinary story in his wonderfully rich study of the Middle Ages…His idea of approaching the medieval worldview through the body is inspired…This beautifully illustrated book succeeds brilliantly in bringing this much maligned period to life…A triumph of scholarship." -- PD Smith - Guardian
"A dazzling tour through physiognomy and across time, medieval bodies are a route into understanding a richly imaginative and curious age…[C]apacious and entertaining…[M]arvellously detailed…
Medieval Bodies lets its readers see through medieval eyes. Guided by Hartnell’s expertise, we gaze upon a long-ago world." -- Rachel Moss - Times Higher Education
"One of the achievements of this splendid book is to make our world view seem more narrow and fragmented than that of the extensive period we place somewhere between the Dark Ages and the Renaissance…[A]t every point you’ll encounter wit, learning and riveting stories. A wonderful read." -- Melanie McDonagh - Evening Standard
"An ambitiously interdisciplinary study…[E]xtravagantly illustrated…[F]ull of lively information." -- G. R. Evans, - Church Times
"[
Medieval Bodies will] make you smile and squirm in equal measure…This is a book about the body, but in some ways it is an exploration of the recesses of the medieval mind" -- Mary Wellesley - Times Literary Supplement
