{"schema_version":"bf_book_companion_v1","release_id":"20260402T191500Z-bisacv2site-fullset","book":{"amazon_purchase_url":"https://www.amazon.com/dp/1350541672?tag=bookfrontier-20","asin":"1350541672","authors":["Jason O'Toole"],"book_id":"9781350541672","canonical_url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781350541672","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781350541672.jpg?v=20260402T191500Z-bisacv2site-fullset%3A2026-04-05T10%3A13%3A18Z","description":"How might we understand early modern sexuality prior to contemporary interpretations of sexuality? What does the sex life of James VI and I tell us about the history of sexuality? Jason O'Toole explores the network of intimacy which structured itself around King James VI and I, his wife Anna of Denmark and James' prominent as well as ancillary favourites to provide answers to these questions. O'Toole presents a cultural and literary history of homoerotic desire by analysing the politics and texture of queer culture at the Jacobean court. To uncover this history, he investigates how physical manifestations of desire reveal themselves through intimacy between physical bodies and through the handling, employment and exchange of material bodies and objects. Objects which simultaneously represent accepted and forbidden desire. Highlighting how same-sex desire was often concealed, O'Toole evaluates how literary works from the period communicate an unnamed desire between men through metaphor, allegories and Classical allusions. Primary texts including poems, masques, and unpublished manuscripts, recurrent tropes, material culture such as artistic artefacts and architectural design are analysed to unpack sexual double meanings and demonstrate how homoeroticism acts as a regular and accessible subtext. This focus illustrates how homoerotic and homosocial desire were both interwoven and normative in the courts of King James VI & I, foregrounding the social, cultural and political importance of same-sex desire in the early modern period.","forthcoming":false,"isbn13":"9781350541672","publication_date":"20251211","publisher":"The Arden Shakespeare","slug":"exploring-early-modern-sexualities","subtitle":"The Desires of King James VI and I","title":"Exploring Early Modern Sexualities"},"discovery":{"categories":{"all":[{"bisac_code":"ARC000000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Architecture","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"LAN005000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Creative Writing","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"}],"hint":[],"publisher":[{"bisac_code":"ARC000000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Architecture","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"LAN005000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Creative Writing","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"}]},"genres":[{"label":"Architecture","score":1,"slug":"architecture"},{"label":"Creative Writing","score":1,"slug":"creative-writing"}],"reader_fit":["Good for readers who enjoy Architecture","Good for readers who enjoy Architecture and Creative Writing."],"related_lists":[],"series":null,"similar_books":[{"authors":["Julianne Sandberg","Emma Mason","Mark Knight"],"book_id":"9781350452893","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781350452893.jpg?v=20260402T191500Z-bisacv2site-fullset%3A2026-04-05T10%3A13%3A18Z","score":6.2758,"title":"Early Modern Literature and the Bodies of a Reformed Eucharist","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781350452893"},{"authors":["S. Schmid","Susanne Schmid"],"book_id":"9780230110656","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780230110656.jpg?v=20260402T191500Z-bisacv2site-fullset%3A2026-04-05T10%3A13%3A18Z","score":5.8896,"title":"British Literary Salons of the Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780230110656"},{"authors":["Robert McParland"],"book_id":"9781538105535","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781538105535.jpg?v=20260402T191500Z-bisacv2site-fullset%3A2026-04-05T10%3A13%3A18Z","score":5.7554,"title":"From Native Son to King's Men","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781538105535"},{"authors":["N. Jones","Norman W. Jones"],"book_id":"9781349537242","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781349537242.jpg?v=20260402T191500Z-bisacv2site-fullset%3A2026-04-05T10%3A13%3A18Z","score":5.6345,"title":"Gay and Lesbian Historical Fiction","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781349537242"},{"authors":["G. Davidson","Guy Davidson"],"book_id":"9781349343126","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781349343126.jpg?v=20260402T191500Z-bisacv2site-fullset%3A2026-04-05T10%3A13%3A18Z","score":5.6026,"title":"Queer Commodities","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781349343126"},{"authors":["Gary Kates","Beat Kümin","Brian Cowan","Beat Kumin"],"book_id":"9781350277656","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781350277656.jpg?v=20260402T191500Z-bisacv2site-fullset%3A2026-04-05T10%3A13%3A18Z","score":5.5738,"title":"The Books That Made the European Enlightenment","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781350277656"},{"authors":["Geertjan de Vugt"],"book_id":"9783030081256","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9783030081256.jpg?v=20260402T191500Z-bisacv2site-fullset%3A2026-04-05T10%3A13%3A18Z","score":5.5638,"title":"Political Dandyism in Literature and Art","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9783030081256"},{"authors":["Jonathan Greenaway"],"book_id":"9781501371356","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781501371356.jpg?v=20260402T191500Z-bisacv2site-fullset%3A2026-04-05T10%3A13%3A18Z","score":5.5518,"title":"Theology, Horror and Fiction","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781501371356"}],"topics":[],"what_you_get":["Reading lane: Architecture and Creative Writing.","Publisher: The Arden Shakespeare."]},"llm_signals":null,"source_presence":{"amazon":true,"book_detail":true,"goodreads":false,"llm_signals":false,"similarity_seed":true},"stats":{"amazon_ratings_count":0,"goodreads_ratings_count":0,"goodreads_reviews_count":0,"quality_score":0.8}}