Title: Transformations of Love
Description: This volume is an account of the curiously passionate but platonic friendship that arose between English writer and diarist John Evelyn (1620-1706) and Margaret Godolphin (1652-1678). Godolphin was a maid of honor in the court of King Charles II of England. When they met, Evelyn was a civil servant and horticulturalist, 48 years old, and had been married for more than two decades; Godolphin was 17. Evelyn's friendship with Godolphin is recorded in a diary, which he says he designed "to consecrate her worthy life to posterity". Set against the vivid background of the court and the great gardens of the time, this work provides insights into the sexual and spiritual worlds of early modern England.

"John Evelyn ranks with friend Samuel Pepys as one of the best loved of English diarists. He was a virtuoso: a man of letters and of science, an intellectual who was also devoutly spiritual." "In 1669, Evelyn began the most controversial episode of his life: a passionate 'seraphic' friendship with Margaret Godolphin, a maid of honour at the court of Charles II, 30 years his junior." "Set against the background of the court and the great gardens of the time, Transformations of Love is the story of a complex and ambiguous relationship. Was Evelyn as much a sexual predator as the rakes he professed to despise? Or was this truly a 'holy friendship'? Drawing on newly-discovered evidence, Frances Harris provides unexpected new insights into the sexual and spiritual worlds of Restoration England."--Jacket.
Subjects: Biography, Court and courtiers, Diarists, Friends and associates, History, Social life and customs, Women, Liefdesparen, Literary, English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, LITERARY CRITICISM, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY, European, Evelyn, John, 1620-1706., Godolphin, Margaret Blagge, 1652-1678 -- Friends and associates., Evelyn, John, 1620-1706 -- Friends and associates., Godolphin, Margaret Blagge, 1652-1678., Diarists -- Great Britain -- Biography., Women -- Great Britain -- Biography., Great Britain -- Court and courtiers -- History -- 17th century., England -- Social life and customs -- 17th century., Great Britain -- Court and courtiers -- Biography., Evelyn, john, 1620-1706, Man-woman relationships, Authors, biography, Women, great britain, England, social life and customs, Great britain, court and courtiers, Women, biography, Great britain, history, stuarts, 1603-1714, English Authors
Places: England, Great Britain
People: John Evelyn (1620-1706), Margaret Blagge Godolphin (1652-1678)
Time periods: 17th century