STRANGE ANTICS

A HISTORY OF SEDUCTION

William Collins, 416pp, £25

CLEMENT KNOX

Clement Knox takes on quite the subject in this ‘dense and capacious’ history of seduction, said Helen Mccarthy in the Guardian, arguing that ‘the origins of our current sexual discontents can be located some 300 years ago in Enlightenment-era debates over human nature. “Whether we are moved more by reason or by the passions, whether we are rational agents or creatures vulnerable to error, deceit and suasion” is the question he sees as foundational to any understanding of sexuality now.’ Frances Wilson in the Sunday

Times, though, found that argument was hard to follow amid the distracting historical detail: ‘It is the argument that distinguishes Strange

Antics, and this tends to get lost inside the life stories of the figures in the tent. There is much to praise here, but the book would have been improved by reducing the word load, focusing the plot line and tightening the guy-ropes throughout.’ Houman Barekat in the Spectator concurred: ‘The stories told here have been told many times before; Knox’s achievement, in arranging them into a single narrative, is more curatorial than authorial.’

Though Simon Ings, writing in the Times, agreed that the book resembled a ‘greatest hits’ parade of sexual moments from history, he said: ‘Just as the game begins to pall, Knox delivers a blistering finale, drawing together themes of sexual politics, economics, law and the ordinary human desire for love and companionship into a vision of our present condition.’