Outward Appearances: The Female Exterior in Restoration London

This book elucidates early modern attitudes toward women's public display. It is a cultural study that draws on a wide range of literary and non-literary texts from 1650-1700 to revisit the sites where women appeared most prominently: the playhouse, the park, and the New Exchange (a shopping arcade in the Strand). An academic study, Outward Appearances is written in a clear and engaging style. It is aimed particularly at literary scholars, but historians will take a keen interest in it as well. It offers a fresh context for the study of Restoration drama and a provocative argument about women and public space.