Erin Maglaque’s adoration for the female body is clear throughout Presence, both in her personal stories and her historical research. I found the first chapter, about food, and the last chapters, about desire and death, to be the most enlightening and heartfelt of the book. I could definitely see myself returning to this if I was working on a project surrounding the female body, as this is some of the most comprehensive and accessible research I’ve encountered on the subjects Maglaque touches on.

Thanks to NetGalley and Astra Publishing House for the arc!

This book was both fascinating and infuriating. An impressively accessible dive into the different versions of the historical female body and how they have changed over time. Not a lot has been written or researched on the subject, so the book felt like an ode to the seen and unseen work women and their bodies do in all stages of life. I learned a lot and loved the author's personal inputs.

Link to my review on Storygraph https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/ef90c676-43ae-4e32-ad65-06c6bb4fa57a

Will be posting about it on my tiktok as well: @carostidbits and writing about it on my blog: carostidbits.substack.com

Looking forward to the physical copy!

Each chapter taught me more about things I didn't know about my own female body. Each historical fact, mixed with the author's own history, made this novel a gripping piece of revelation.

Starting this review with a quote from this book:
“There was a fundamental distrust of what happened inside the female body; external evidence not required.

Oh how this still rings true, even 500 years later.

There was so much history built into this book from the 1400s to present day. I appreciated the mix of personal anecdotes and historical evidence, but I felt the pacing of the book would’ve benefited from more depth on the personal side. At times it felt like we were jumping from historical quote to historical quote with no context as to why; a way of dumping a ton of data into one chapter.

Chapter 3 was the most intriguing, as Maglaque delves into the history of “unpregnancy” and how people assume society was always against it. That wasn’t always the case, even in the Catholic church who became much more strict on the subject in the late 1500s.

The chapters on sleep and desire were two of my favorites; they were fascinating and relatable and although these are biological forces, the way we approach them has changed so much throughout history.

The epilogue perfectly wrapped the book up, and brought the reason for the research full circle. It was about the risk of being present, the risk of searching for more, the risk of being curious. The word ‘presence’ permeated through the book and it not only referenced the presence of others throughout a woman’s history, but the presence of oneself while experiencing these phenomena.

Thank you to Astra House and NetGalley for the advanced reader copy!!

Presence details the history of the female body by discussing topics of eating, pregnancy, abortion, birth, sleep, breastfeeding, desire, drudgery and dying. This book dives into historical facts around these topics but also discusses the authors personal experiences. People in the past especially men believed strange things about women regarding their bodies and this is a fascinating look at how certain beliefs have changed.

I enjoyed reading this and I had a good time learning the historical beliefs about women’s bodies. This is written well and even when I wasn’t the most interested in a topic I still found this compelling. I liked learning about the historical beliefs regarding pregnancy specifically what made a fetus human and the changing beliefs on fat/thin bodies. I think this book also shows how connections can be made to anything and at the time it will make sense. For example, in the past some people believed conditions a wet nurse had would be transferred to the child and at the time that easily made sense to people. I will be recommending this and I really appreciate what this author had to say on their experience of being a woman.

WOW! I am absolutely impressed with this book!
Because of the references to the 1600-1700s I was worried this book would fly over my head, but Erin Maglaque does a fantastic job of drawing parallels to the past with her own modern reflections on life as a AFAB Woman. From birth to breastfeeding to female desire , Maglaque paints a beautiful yet somber portrait of how the world has evolved through patriarchal ways.
I learned so much from this book & honestly can’t wait to buy a hard copy when it releases. I don’t know if i have read a book that so seamlessly marries two time periods!

Part-memoir, part-history, Maglaque’s
experience of pregnancy and mothering was the catalyst for delving into pre-modern Western Europe to uncover women’s understandings of, and writings about, their bodies - from birth to death and everything in-between.

I thoroughly enjoyed this necessary and urgent history, which provides a stunning corrective to both the theory of mind-body dualism and the invented ‘tradition’ currently being conjured to support efforts to legislate away women’s rights.

Drawing on women’s voices from diaries, letters and Court transcripts, as well as writings about women, Maglaque’s work is both theoretical and earthy, prompting introspection on how we have come to view ourselves and our role as women. I found it incredibly powerful to connect with and relate to the women Maglaque mentions as examples (and the many entirely absent from the historical record) and consider the differences and similarities in our lives, governed as they are by our bodies.

The book was interesting and accessible, well-structured, and cohesive. It would be a great fit for anyone who enjoys social history, or wants to understand women’s interiority in pre-modern Western Europe.

Very interesting history of women’s bodies presented in an accessible way. This is an important addition to feminist non-fiction. The author seamlessly weaves in her own experiences with her body. It is dense with history, so don’t try to read it all in one sitting. It is totally worth the read!

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!