The Game of Love in Georgian England

Holloway's work is important for historians interested in gender, marriage and the law, but it also serves as a broader study in how to use material culture to understand the history of emotions. Her close attention to the ways in which courting couples used objects in a conscious attempt to create emotional experiences presents a model for thinking about how objects might function in other cultural situations. The breadth of her research, drawing from dozens of archives along with museums and private collections, is impressive ... Holloway has presented a welcome new way of thinking about early modern love and courtship, and this book should serve as a reference and model for scholars for years to come. * Ingrid Tague, English Historical Review *
Holloway excels at showing the relationship between culture and practice, providing detailed and precise evidence for the replication of cultural 'scripts' in individual relationships...a fascinating addition to the histories of marriage and courtship, and a significant work within a growing scholarship on emotions and material culture. * Kate Gibson, University of Manchester, History *
Eighteenth-century emotions have never been so keenly felt as in Sally Holloway's engaging and wide-ranging study The Game of Love in Georgian England. Holloway provides a thoroughly researched and lively account of the rituals, material culture and lexicon of love and courtship...The study is underpinned by an impressive range of contemporary source material, extending well beyond life-writings to include novels, plays and poetry, ballads and prints, medical treatises, newspaper reports and court cases, paintings, philosophical discourses, periodicals and conduct literature. * Helen Metcalfe, Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies *
a landmark study...builds on work in the history of the family and the history of emotions to examine romantic courtship from the inside out. The power of objects as conduits for emotion is palpable in Holloway's excellent account of the sensory uses of love tokens - gazing at, touching and smelling them - 'to achieve the feeling of being in love' (83). This is a model account of the affective work performed by objects. * Karen Harvey, Social History *
Holloway adroitly couples details with theory, and enhances her "object-driven approach" with illuminating reproductions of period pictures, cartoons and artefacts. * Jane O'Grady, Telegraph *
As well as a vivid account of eighteenth-century courtship, Holloway offers much food for thought regarding the impact of social conventions and consumer culture on emotional experience and its expression. The language of romantic love was remarkably consistent across social classes in the eighteenth century while at the same time flexible in response to changing ideas and fashions. As she points out in her conclusion, it continues to evolve. * Marilyn L. Morris, Eighteenth-Century Studies *
an impressive book which offers new insights into how Georgian men and women negotiated the processes of courtship, and provides an exemplar of how to 'do' emotions history with objects. * Elizabeth Spencer, Women's History Review *