The forty men rule

The stack of books beside my bed is getting out of control. I'm going to need an engineer soon to consult on how to keep them upright. I'm almost finished with Love for Sale: A World History of Prostitution by Nils Johan Ringdal, which is as entertaining as a 17th Century Venetian courtesan's repartee (who, incidentally, was required to be "neat and clean, delicate, well dressed, cunning at the card table and board games, and prolific in arithmetic.") Full of fascinating detail about whoredom, one of my favourite bits is the "forty men rule" devised by medieval theologians - any woman who had sex with over forty men was deemed a harlot whether she was paid for the sex or not. So - whew - there'll be a few women out there who are glad they stopped at thirty-nine. Also on the stack is Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe and Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote, both waiting for a re-read. Under that, The Lives of the Muses: Nine Women and the Artists they Inspired by Francine Prose and Maharanis: A Family Saga of Four Queens by Lucy Moore... hmmm I think there's a theme emerging.