An examination of gender relations and the experiences of women in the diverse, mobile society of 16th- and 17th-century London. Focusing on disputes over sex and marriage, the author provides a detailed analysis based on legal records of gender practices and relations in everyday life. Impressively documented, elegantly written, sophisticated yet clear in its analysis, it is the best work of early modern English social history that I have read for years ... no scholars of early modern England will be able to ignore this powerful and very important book.