Presence

“[A] soulful, moving, sometimes cacophonous account of European women’s experiences and interior lives from about 1500 to 1800 . . . [Maglaque’s] riveting survey reveals just how much of what the modern Western world accepts as given, even natural, was created in this period: from female beauty ideals (which swung from a shape of “abundance, fertility” to “one of refinement and self-control” by the late 18th century) to our notions of personhood, orgasm, gender. In writing as visceral as Cixous demands, Maglaque also uses these revelations to help make sense of her own life, whisking the reader nimbly between this distant past and her present, personal encounters with desire, abortion, birth, ambition.”
—Mattie Kahn, The New York Times Book Review

“I’ve been savoring Erin Maglaque’s book Presence: A Hidden History of the Female Body, which came out this week. She’s a really good historian, and a terrific stylist who writes with vivid, pointillistic detail about breast-feeding, infant care, sleeping, sex and pregnancy, birth—all that stuff that doesn’t usually make it into the historical record.”
—Namara Smith, The New Yorker

“A phenomenal debut . . . a stunning examination of women’s bodies through their endless searching, movement, restlessness and patterns . . . [Maglaque] disrupts the long-held notion of what is ‘natural’ to and about women’s bodies and lives, and reminds us that most histories are written about us, without us. This remarkable volume serves as a powerful rejoinder to those histories, offering a fresh vision of past as presence.”
—Karla J. Strand, Ms. Magazine

“Intimate and ambitious.”
—Christopher Kissane, The Irish Times

“Historian Erin Maglaque has plumbed the archives of early modern Europe to find the traces and shadow traces of female bodies . . . [But] hers is not a conventionally scholarly book: it is thick with sensate details, and her first-person approach is embodied and apetitive.”
—Michele Pridmore-Brown, The Literary Review (UK)

“An impressive book debut . . . As Maglaque examines pregnancy and miscarriage, abortion, labor and birth, caregiving, housework, and care of the dying, the voices of myriad women (herself included) amply fulfill her aim of making the past ‘present and immediate.’ A richly textured, revelatory history.”
—Kirkus Reviews, starred review

“Weaving her personal history with those of women from the more distant past, Maglaque doesn’t strive for universality, but a deep connectivity that makes the book at points illuminating and infuriating.”
—Literary Hub, “Ten Great Nonfiction Titles to Read in June”

“Armed with impressive erudition and a sharp eye for the telling anecdote, Maglaque accumulates a massive collection of details about women’s lives across three centuries (1500-1800 CE) and several western European regions.”
—Emily Ogden, New Statesman

“Engrossing and vital, Presence rediscovers the female body as a vessel of history. Interweaving past and present, the personal with incisive scholarship, these stories reveal the rich, unexpected, and sometimes brutal ways in which the complexities of female embodiment connect all women across all time.”
—Michelle Orange, author of Pure Flame

“In Presence, Erin Magalaque expands and explodes the genre of personal history. In a voice at once deeply learned and often disarmingly intimate, these explorations unravel much of what women have been told about our bodies, desires, and capacities. They embody a mode of thought that does not only describe freedom but enacts it.”
—Moira Weigel, author of Labor of Love

“An immersive, revelatory, and astonishing book about women, told through the distinct bodily experiences that punctuate our lives, and the history we’ve rarely been taught. Beautifully written and acutely insightful, Presence connects us to ourselves, our foremothers, and each other.”
—Sophie Gilbert, author of Girl on Girl