Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- 1. 'Will' and the Dark Side of Sexual Desire -- 2. Male Lust, Power and Rape -- 3. Lustful Women and Male Fantasies of Female Desire -- 4. Romantic Love and Sexual Desire: The Fickleness of Fancy, Eyes and Love's Mind -- 5. The Petrarchan Love Convention: Romance at Odds with Sexual Desire -- 6. Sex, Love and Paradigms of Marriage -- 7. Homoerotic Desire and Same-Sex Bonding: Challenges to Heterosexual Partnership? -- 8. 'The Buildings of My Fancy': Family Ties and Sexual Desire -- Works Cited -- Index
Summary
Analyses how far Shakespeare succeeds in reconciling two polarised areas in the early modern period: sexual desire, or will, and idealised approaches to romantic love.
