A Natural History of Love (58 page)
Read A Natural History of Love Online
Authors: Diane Ackerman
FIRST VINTAGE BOOKS EDITION, MARCH 1995.
Copyright © 1994 by Diane Ackerman
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Vintage Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. Originally published in hardcover by Random House, Inc., New York, in 1994.
A portion of this work was originally published in different form in the August 1992 issue of
Allure
.
The section entitled “Kissing” was originally published in slightly different form in
A Natural History of the Senses
by Diane Ackerman (Random House, Inc., New York, 1990).
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Ackerman, Diane.
A natural history of love / Diane Ackerman. — 1st Vintage Books ed.
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-0-307-76332-7
1. Love—History. 2. Man-woman relationships—History. I.
Title.
[HQ801.A513 1995]
306.7—dc20 95-1910
v3.0
Table of Contents
Introduction: Love’s Vocabulary
The World of the Citizen King
The Woman’s World
Men Loving Men
The Family
Orpheus and Eurydice
The Nightmare of Girls
Dido and Aeneas
The Family
Oh, Victoria!
Ovid and the Art of Love
Decorating Leisure Time
The Birth of Chivalry
Books of Love
Troubadours
The Heart’s Rebellion
The Origins of Courtly Love
Abelard and Heloise
The Angel and the Witch
Romeo and Juliet
Bridled Hearts
A Waking Swoon
A Return to Courtly Love
Domestic Paradise
Modern Love
THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER: IDEAS ABOUT LOVE
Denis de Rougemont: Love and Magic
Marcel Proust and the Erotics of Waiting
ALL FIRES THE FIRE: THE NATURE OF LOVE
Disabling Love
The Horror of the Ik
Brain-Stem Sonata: The Neurophysiology of Love
The Plastic Brain
New-Age Sensitive Guys
Adultery
The Battle of the Sexes
Mother Love, Father Love
The Cuddle Chemical
The Infatuation Chemical
The Attachment Chemical
The Chemistry of Divorce
A NECESSARY PASSION: THE EROTICS OF LOVE
Fire from the Flesh: Why Sex Evolved
The Spice of Life
The Evolution of the Face
Survival of the Cutest
Facing Our Biases
The Indy 500
The Lightest Longing: Sex and Flying
Sexual Chic: Perversion as Fashion
PASSING STRANGE AND WONDERFUL: LOVE’S CUSTOMS
Flesh of My Flesh: The Marriage
Love on the Edge: Adultery, Extravagant Gestures, and Crimes of Passion
POINTS FOR A COMPASS ROSE: VARIETIES OF LOVE
For the Love of Children: Interplast