A Natural History of Love (58 page)

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Authors: Diane Ackerman

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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

Cover

Other Books by this Author

About the Author

Title Page

Dedication

Permissions

Acknowledgements

Introduction: Love’s Vocabulary

Greece

The World of the Citizen King
The Woman’s World
Men Loving Men
The Family
Orpheus and Eurydice

Rome

The Nightmare of Girls
Dido and Aeneas
The Family
Oh, Victoria!
Ovid and the Art of Love
Decorating Leisure Time

The Middle Ages

The Birth of Chivalry
Books of Love
Troubadours
The Heart’s Rebellion
The Origins of Courtly Love
Abelard and Heloise

Modern Days

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

Plato: The Perfect Union

Stendhal Meets the Deep South

Denis de Rougemont: Love and Magic

Marcel Proust and the Erotics of Waiting

Freud: The Origins of Desire

Attachment Theory

ALL FIRES THE FIRE: THE NATURE OF LOVE

The Loving Impaired

Disabling Love
The Horror of the Ik

Brain-Stem Sonata: The Neurophysiology of Love

The Evolution of Love

The Plastic Brain
New-Age Sensitive Guys
Adultery
The Battle of the Sexes

The Chemistry of Love

Mother Love, Father Love
The Cuddle Chemical
The Infatuation Chemical
The Attachment Chemical
The Chemistry of Divorce

Aphrodisiacs

A NECESSARY PASSION: THE EROTICS OF LOVE

Fire from the Flesh: Why Sex Evolved

The Spice of Life

The Face

The Evolution of the Face
Survival of the Cutest
Facing Our Biases

The Hair

Women and Horses

Men and Cars

The Indy 500

The Lightest Longing: Sex and Flying

Wings over Africa

Men and Mermaids

Sexual Chic: Perversion as Fashion

Kissing

On the Sensuality of Looking

PASSING STRANGE AND WONDERFUL: LOVE’S CUSTOMS

Patterns in Nature

The Courtship

Flesh of My Flesh: The Marriage

Of Cocks and Cunts

Love on the Edge: Adultery, Extravagant Gestures, and Crimes of Passion

POINTS FOR A COMPASS ROSE: VARIETIES OF LOVE

Altruism

For the Love of Children: Interplast

For the Love of Strangers: Life and Death in the South Seas

On Religious Love

On Transference Love

On the Love of Pets

Postscript: The Museum

Selected Bibliography

Copyright

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