Throughout this study, Biblical citations will be quoted from the Douay-Rheims translation, which remains close to the Latin Vulgate, the translation most accessible to the medieval authors and readers this study takes as its subject. Et ne perpetui reatus aput uiros obprobrium sustineret, quae culpam uiro transfuderat, transfudit et gratiam ueterisque lapsus conpensat aerumnam resurrectionis indicio. Per os mulieris mors ante processerat, per os mulieris uita reparatur. Sed quia Constantia ad praedicandum inferior, sesus ad exsequendum infirmior, uiris euangelizandi mandatur officium.
John Chrysostom laments the change in women nowadays, who no longer learn in silence, as Paul commands: They may all be seen here talking more than in the market, or at the baths. University of Chicago Press, , Translations from Greek Texts Washington, D. Catholic University of America Press, , John Henre Parker, An Anthology of Medieval Texts, No need of trumpets or cymbals. While Bloch pursues the fascinating connections that are implied by this between rhetoric and women, more central to the current discussion is the notion that women are associated specifically with excessive speech.
In much medieval and earlier writing, this speech takes the form of garrulity and gossip, and through this sometimes slander. Excessive speech of all kinds is commonly attributed to women in misogynistic clerkly writing. Indiana University Press, , lines Considering the strong reliance of much misogynistic writing on earlier examples, it may be that Walter Map is here referring specifically to the persuasive force of the female voice, rather than to persuasion and flattery in general.
Grau 51 the Liber Lamentationum Matheoluli ca. A sort of riddle that appears in the text takes the familiarity of the assertion that women are naturally and inevitably garrulous for granted: Quare clamose plus quam nos sunt mulieres? Fiunt ex osse, nos ex tellure. Nam magis os resonat terra.
Book II, 69 Why are women more noisy, full of foolish words, and more garrulous than men? Because they are made of bones and our persons are made of clay: In the Tractatus de amore ca. Pourquoy sont femmes plus noiseuses, Plaines de paroles oiseuses Et plus jangleuses que les homes? The text was taken for many years to be a straightforward statement of the love ethos that drove the troubadours and their northern counterparts.
However, because the third book of the treatise seems to contradict the previous two, and because many of the statements about women and love in this third book, including those cited here, are so extreme, it has been proposed that some sort of ironic treatment of fashionable attitudes is being attempted. Allen, The Art of Love: Grau 52 thirteenth-century ca. Because woman is too sensual, gluttonous and greedy, disobedient, lying, evil- tongued and rapacious, … Full of drunkeness, gossipy, revealing secrets everywhere, par who cannot one man love with good affection.
Her tongue spares no one, from slander she cannot keep quiet. Capellanus, however, continues, writing specifically about the talkativeness of women: Champion, , , see note. Grau 53 barking dog, and she will disturb the whole neighborhood over a trifle. When she is with other women, no one of them will give the others a chance to speak, but each always tries to be the one to say whatever is to be said and to keep on talking longer than the rest; and neither her tongue nor her spirit ever gets tired out by talking.
We even see many women who are so anxious to talk that when they are alone they talk to themselves and speak out loud. A woman will boldly contradict everything you say, and she can never agree with anything, but she always tries to give her opinion on every subject. Immo mulier cum aliis commorando nunquam alicui ad loquendum vellet cedere locum, sed suis simper dictis nititur dicenda committere et in suo diutius sermone durare, nec unquam posset sua lingua vel spiritus fatigari loquendo.
Saepe etiam mulieres videmus plurimas, quae propter aviditatem loquendi solitariae commorantes intra se ipsas ad verba moventur et expressa voce loquuntur. Sed etiam cunctis mulier audacter loquendo resistit et nullius unquam posset acquiescere dictis, sed in omnibus simper suam nititur praeferre sententiam. III, 75 These verbal transgressions are among the many reasons given by Andreas that pursuit of love is simply not worth the trouble, although he also lays out methods to gain it if you must. And, certainly, if these accusations were true, the divulging of secrets and slandering of other women would be causes for alarm.
But what of the woman who talks to herself? Her language is not disruptive or harmful, but simply so unnecessary, so excessive, as to be disturbing. Her wicked spiteful tongue rains down A thunderstorm upon his crown. The noise defeats the patient spouse; He yields to her and quits the house.
A drip, the smoke, a wife—these three Compel a man his house to flee. The man speaks words of peace; the wife Piles on the quarrels and the strife. Est lingua gladius in ore femine Quo vir percutitur tanquam a fulmine. Per hanc ilaritas fugit ab homine; Domus subuertitur ut austri turbine. It is unusual in its lack of allusions to the major texts of the antifeminist tradition; it cites biblical texts almost exclusively, while maintaining a practical, earthly outlook on marriage. The third angel, who speaks the verses given here, is identified as St.
John Chrysostom, whose own writing are discussed above. See the introduction and edition in A. The De coniuge non ducenda Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, Grau 55 Manet in coniuge fides exigua Postquam superbie sumpserit cornua. De lingua coniugis praua et nocua Fulgura prodeunt atque tonitrua. JJ13 … Voluntas coniugis simper efficitur; Sin autem, litigat, flet et irascitur. Maritus paciens clamore vincitur, Et cedens coniugi domum egreditur.
Fumus et mulier et stillicidia Expellunt hominem de domo propria. Vir blande loquitur, dat verba mollia; Ipsa multiplicat lites et iurgia. Because the wife, unlike other women, has the power to affect a husband who has little chance of escape, her speech is particularly dangerous. Stereotypes of women as quarrelsome also find their way into Latin and vernacular sermons, especially in the context of exempla, illustrative stories used by preachers to keep the interest of their audiences, which included women.
- Peters Christmas (The Night Stalkers Book 6).
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- 3 Wild Thrillers (My Casino Caper, Justice is Mine, Wicked Players).
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Jacques de Vitry ca. Beverly M Kienzle Turnhout-Belgium: Brepols, , ; Phyllis B. Cloister, City, University, ed. Jacqueline Hamesse et al. Grau 56 anecdotes, which they may have translated orally into French. Among the exempla used are many that construct women as talkative, and especially feature quarrelsome wives. In one anecdote, a woman tells her neighbors that her husband has lice, despite his command to hold her tongue.
When his anger leads him to drown her, she reaches her hands out of the water to mime the killing of a louse, unwilling even at the moment of death to let him win an argument. When the husband comments on the methods by which the field is maintained, his wife immediately contradicts him. The argument over whether the grass has been mowed or shorn continues until he, in a fit of rage, cuts out her tongue. She continues to sign the motion of shears, again demonstrating the quarrelsome nature of wives. Brepols, , Cumque maritus frequenter rogasset eam ut a tali opprobrio cessaret, et illa nichilominus et frequenter exprobraret quod miser et pediculosus esset, tandem sub interminatione gravis pene illi inhibuit ne talia de cetero diceret.
At illa, prohibitione contempta, acerbius et frequentius quam prius hujusmodi convitia marito inferre non cessabat. Tandem vir ejus in aquam precipitavit eam, cumque fere suffocaretur et os aperire non posset quin aqua subintraret, ipsa sub aqua manus extendens cepit signis exprobrare et inter duas ungues pulicum, ac si pediculos occideret, exprimere signo quod non poterat verbo. Thomas Frederick Crane, ed. Folklore Society, , 92, Tandem maritus valde iratus abscidit linguam uxoris. Illa nichilominus cum digitis forcipes exprimens signo innuebat quod pratum tonsum fuerat et cum non posset ore cepit digitis litigare.
Sic faciunt quidam monachi quando eis silentium imperatur. In both cases, the sexual and vocal behavior of the wife are connected, and are threatening to the husbands. This story clearly summarizes the two major trends in the representation of female voices in thirteenth-century French literature: The seductive side of the female voice is to be feared as much as the disruptive; like Eve, women may use speech to lead their husbands into danger.
Marbod of Rennes ca. The Siren is also like this: Grau 58 homeland—avoiding sweet-sounding songs and dangerous attractions—should block up and protect the hearing with lawful doctrine and stay fastened to the timber with rope of diving fear. But it also argues that their words and songs can be seductive, or even full of hidden meanings. Herder, , lines A Journal of Medieval Studies 61 7, Grau 59 the better. The power of their voices allowed good women to provide a moral compass for their husbands, and this was not lost on medieval preachers, who on occasion urged women to use their persuasive abilities to influence their straying husbands.
Women were asked to urge their husbands to be generous patrons of monastic institutions, to discourage them from usury and greed. In the thirteenth century, as vernacular literature gained in importance and prestige, many of these clerical stereotypes emerged in new form, creating stock female figures whose vocality is central to their identity. Broomfield, Analecta mediaevalia Namurcensia 25 Louvain, Paris,: Editions Nauwelaerts; Beatrice Nauwelaerts, Sensuality and Relationship as Feminist Values, ed. Hagiographic romances, whose female subjects are generally virginal and heroic, demonstrate the possibility of a strong female voice used for the betterment of others, although they also suggest anxiety about a female voice that will not submit to male authority.
Fabliaux, which more often feature married women and women of lower social class, provide the most extreme examples of the female voice as disruptive, noisy and nagging. The courtly romance, perhaps closest of these genres in subject matter and audience to courtly song, is a complex genre that contains a range of female characters, though generally of high social status. In the courtly romance, we will see not so much a particular female stereotype as a focused use of female vocality, as an important element in the definition of gender difference. All these examples, despite the misogynistic traditions to which they often seem to refer, are susceptible to the sort of resistant readings that Krueger and Burns suggest.
Many medieval stories both reinforce the conclusions reached above about the association of women with excessive vocality and simultaneously suggest the possibility that medieval female readers, and their male supporters, may have heard in these stories the power of the female voice to challenge and undermine even their own authors. Throughout this discussion, I will consider not only the patriarchal construction of female vocality in literature, but also possibilities for resistance by audiences.
The Hagiographic Romance With the emergence of hagiographic romances, a new class of female speaker entered the vernacular corpus. They exposed lay, even illiterate, audiences to a wider range of these stories. As in other hagiographical works, the essential purpose of these stories was didactic, although the attention to literary details and exoticism in some hagiographic romances may at times take precedence over that basic purpose.
According to Thomas Heffernan: See also Thomas J. Oxford University Press, , chap. While French writers often somewhat downplay the eloquence of the heroines in favor of their beauty or victimization, vernacular versions still portray women whose voices do not fit the expectations explored above. The cult of the Virgin Mary gave especially strong intercessory power to the voice of the virgin, and it may be that ideas of the female voice and of the intercessory power of Mary and other female saints are connected. Just as women were encouraged to intercede for the church with their husbands, female saints, often depicted as brides of Christ, were thought to have an affective relationship with Christ that enabled communication out of the reach of the layman, and they were beseeched to intercede with their Bridegroom on behalf of their followers.
While Eve was seen to have used her persuasive power to harm herself and her spouse, the Virgin Mary was a strong model for the positive power of women to intervene. The voices of saints, and particularly female saints, were powerful both in their intercessory potential and in their channeling of divine inspiration.
Saints and their Biographers in the Middle Ages, Grau 63 of the divine. It is here that female martyrs turn to the use of their voice to find power. Women use speech to convert other women, and men, to Christianity, to defy their pagan rulers, and to pray. They, more than men, resort to speech to defend themselves, and often, as a result, are tortured in ways designed to end their persuasive speech. Although feminine speech and learning is often portrayed as unnatural or threatening in contemporary literature, women martyrs, such as Lucy, Christine and Agnes, miraculously continue to speak despite attacks on their throat and tongues.
Perhaps the most iconic example of this feminine power of speech is the story of St. Speaking the Saint New York: Routledge, , George Mason University Press, The majority of the quotations will be drawn from the late twelfth-century Anglo-Norman version of the vita, written by a nun, Clemence of Barking. This is the most well-known and widely available medieval version, although there are a number of other French redactions. Grau 64 unusual and particularly well-known, considered exceptional even among saints. She was identified with single women as well as clerics, and her story often particularly emphasizes her intellectual and rhetorical skills and her status as bride of Christ.
One analysis of her story specifically reads it as a response to misogynistic representations of the female voice: Her ability to defeat them seems to come from a combination of her personal abilities and divine aid. We are told that she is extremely learned, and that she is well-spoken, even in her first address to the pagan emperor: Lewis, St Katherine of Alexandria: The Legend of St. Texts and Contexts in Western Medieval Europe, ed. This article specifically discusses the story as it appears in MS Escorial h-I, where it is found with eight other romances and hagiographic narratives about women.
Taken together, they seem to have been conceived as a defense of women, especially against charges regarding excessive speech. I shall give you eloquence, knowledge and wisdom in speech. Buche te dunrai e science E parler par sapience. Throughout the story, her speech is her only offense, but it is so eloquent as to be dangerous to the pagan emperor: The speech of this woman has an astonishing ability to persuade which, because of her spiritual nature, is used for the betterment of the men around her rather than their corruption. I want to ask yet another boon before my passion: Let them be at all times safe from tempest and sudden death.
Katherine is a complex one: She is not presented as a sexual object held up before her captors as some virgin martyrs were, her cult becomes identified with male clerics as well as single women, and even her visual representation in the Middle Ages is somewhat masculinized by a tendency to portray her with short hair. Katherine must be somewhat masculinized.
Texts and Contexts in Western Medieval Europe. Grau 67 While St. In the life of St. She spits it out, hitting him in the eye with the tongue and blinding him, literally fighting back with her tongue. Miraculously, she retains the power of speech despite this. Unlike Katherine, Christina is victimized specifically because she refuses a marriage, and she is held up for sexual objectification.
Saint Agnes is asked by her tormentor to intercede with God to revive his dead son, which she does successfully; however, she does not avoid torture and martyrdom, and is later stabbed in the throat in an effort to silence her. In each of these vitae, the woman saint at the center of the story offends her captor through her speech, and is punished for it. Katherine and Christina, along with others, defy the pagan establishment with words only, but their words are depicted as extremely powerful, in persuading others to convert, in calling upon God for their aid, and in interceding on the behalf of others.
While, in some ways, these martyrs fulfill female stereotypes of verbal excess and even aggressiveness, their voices are ultimately used for powerful and positive purposes.
The defiant and persuasive nature of the female voice constructs the situation of their martyrdom, and the power of the female voice to direct the actions of the husband—Christ in the case of these sponsa Christi saints— allows these women to intervene for their tormentors. Grau 68 on God for help and for mercy. But in the course of the thirteenth century, the number of vitae that focused on female saints grew quickly, so they made up about half the new texts. Especially in the writing of vernacular romance-style lives, thirteenth-century authors were drawn to sources that portrayed strong, beautiful female saints who could recall the heroines of Old French secular romances.
While romances almost always focused primarily on the adventures of male knights, many hagiographic romances brought to the fore a powerful heroine. Male tormentors may attempt to sexualize or degrade the virgins, and the persecution of these women is often related to their refusal to marry the pagan husband chosen for them. But their resistance to torture and to their own sexualization removes them from the female sex in some way; according to some scholars, the chastity of many virgin saints negates their femininity and leads them to constitute a distinct gender.
Those who chose to remove themselves from that situation may be seen as, in some manner, not truly women. Through their rejection of certain gender identities, the gendered nature of the female voice is often also rejected. The eloquence of Katherine or the persistence of Agnes does not entirely fit masculine or feminine characteristics: As we have seen, another group of women in medieval literature has been similarly described as belonging to a third gender: Martin's Press, , Grau 69 feminine traits, including a complex relationship to gendered ideas of the voice.
The prominent and forceful women of the fabliau, on the other hand, are generally femnae; they are wives and girls who exemplify the basest stereotypes of femininity. The women of the fabliaux have been cited as examples of the prevalent misogyny in medieval French literature because they often are disloyal, deceptive, and even violent toward their husbands.
Most commonly, however, they are not punished but are able to persuade their husbands of their innocence by clever redirection or storytelling. Bouillon, , has become the standard basic definition because of its flexibility and simplicity. For discussion, see the introduction to B. Levy, The Comic Text: Cambridge University Press, ; Norris J. Antifeminism in the Fabliaux? Antifeminism in the Fabliaux?. Lacy, Reading Fabliaux New York: Garland Publishing, , chap. Grau 70 more about the overturning of hierarchical structures in general. Gender is thus recognized as one of many such constructs that can be turned on its head.
Like class hierarchies, the conventions that put men above women were thought by many to be natural, but these conventions were not exempt from challenges and exceptions. Women frequently lie to their husbands in order to preserve adulterous relationships or for other material benefits. To cover up her gluttony, she lies to both her husband and the priest, setting them against each other.
She turns lies into truth and truth into lies. Crowell, , Par example cis fabliaus dist: Then all sorts of ill feelings come out, scoldings, reproaches: God must hate me! That I, who disdained proper young men, gallants and gentlemen, that I should take up with such a born weakling! May all who deal in such deceits have bad luck! And after putting me to such torments! All he wants to do is eat and sleep. All night long he snores like a pig. Am I not ill treated then?
When I stretch out next to him all naked and he turns away from me, it almost tears the heart out of me. My husband, my lord, you never treated me that way. You called me your sweet beloved, and so I called you too, because you turned toward me and kissed me sweetly and said to begin with: May your soul rest in heaven! And this vagabond treats me like the dung in his barnyard. But I well know, by Saint Loy, that his morals are no better than those of an Albigensian heretic. Il ne demande autre dangier Que de dormer et de mangier. Tote nuit ronque con uns pors. Vostre ame soit em paradis!
The stereotypical wife harasses, complains and annoys until her husband tells her of the wishes, after which she seduces and persuades, convincing her husband at last to give her one of the wishes. University of California Press, Grau 73 and pleasing men. Because of their impetuosity, they then waste a wish wishing the organs away without specifically requesting that they retain the originals, and thus must spend the last wish to return to their normal state.
Eighteen Fabliaux Translated from the Old French, Whoever believes a woman is a fool. Lacy, Reading Fabliaux, Although fabliaux present some of the most explicitly misogynistic vernacular literature of the time, there remains the possibility of readings that question the misogynistic conclusions of these stories. The misogyny of the fabliau is also less clear in cases that do not focus on the figure of the wife. As the above examples make clear, it is specifically the voice of the wife, and its effect on her husband and household, that is associated with problematic behavior.
In the few fabliaux that include prominent single female characters, they do not participate in such quarrelsome or deceptive vocal behavior. The more numerous young maidens of the courtly romance might thus be expected to show vocal characteristics far removed from those of the fabliau wives. However, an examination of a few examples of this literature will show the cross-genre influence of the pervasive figuration of woman as excessively vocal. Speech as Sign of Gender Difference: While female characters are only seldom prominent enough to warrant their own aventures, they play a role in those of men through exhorting them to display their prowess, begging them to return from their travels, or telling the stories of previous exploits.
In this section, I will consider the role of female vocality in each of these romances, beginning with Philomena and the Roman de Silence. My reading of Erec and Enide forms a more substantial case study that illustrates both the prevalence of stereotypes of female loquaciousness, and the possibility for female characters to contradict and challenge their representation.
Formula and Parody in Old French Amsterdam: Rodopi, , Lacy and Joan T. Brewer, , Early in the story, when the heroine is described, we are told specifically that the lovely Philomena reads and writes well, can depict people and their actions in tapestries, and that she has considerable oratorical skill.
Skilled in language too, well-read, The maiden could write both verse and prose, And she could perform, as she chose, Music on psaltery or lyre. Who has the art it would require To tell all her talents? Des autors sot et de grameire Et sot bien feire vers et letre Et, quant li plot, li antremetre Et del sautier et de la lire. His view is not limited only to her body; it also includes her voice as an extension of the bodily. Medieval Stories of Men and Women Berkeley: Le Livre de poche, Grau 77 her tongue, violently repressing the female voice by removing that bodily part necessary for vocal production.
Just one stroke, and she would lose Her tongue, and then what could she use To tell of his betrayal? But her ability to speak through other means belies his traditional association of women and their voices with sensuality and the body, and establishes the intellectual and expressive power of the heroine. In another female-centered romance, the Roman de Silence, the title might suggest that the story refutes the connection between women and vocality; however, the representation of female voices is quite complicated. The three major female characters-- Eufemie, Silence and Eufeme—differ significantly, not least in the use of their voices.
Eufeme, whose very name declares her gender, contrasts with Silence and Eufemie as she fulfills misogynistic stereotypes of the feme. Her behavior provokes anti-feminist diatribes by the narrator: Silence is born a girl following a royal declaration against inheritance by women, so her father Cador suggests that she be raised as a man to prevent the loss of his lands. The Latin form of her name, Silencius, is given her at the same moment as her masculine identity, with the idea that it will be changed to the feminine form, Silentia, if her sex is ever revealed.
However, the child is usually referred to by the French form of the name, which is not gendered: May Jesus Christ through his power keep her hidden and silent for us, according to his pleasure. Grau 79 Ensi com lui est a plaizir! When the child hits puberty, Nature and Nurture argue over the appropriate course to take, with Nature exhorting the adolescent to: You are not Silentius! Musicianship is presented as a skill useful for a man or a woman, providing an alternative to either martial skill or textile work; an alternative that is less strongly gendered than these other pursuits.
If women, in general, are meant to be quiet, then Ebain seems to have made an exception for Silence, perhaps because she is not entirely a woman. And it is the revelation that some women are not femna that allows him to repeal his law and allow female inheritance of lands. The contrast between Eufemie and Silence and her mother suggests two possible readings of this romance. However, the behavior of Silence provides a different model.
Although her gender may be seen to be ambiguous, Silence is ultimately able to combine her virtuous speech with her role as wife and queen. Before that, she is also able to live as a praiseworthy and prominent male member of the court. The character of Silence, while she could be seen as an exception to the rule that women must be disruptive in their speech, can also be interpreted as a model for positive female speech. Erec et Enide While the Roman de Silence clearly takes both speech and gender as subjects, there are other romances which seem to engage even more directly with the stereotypes of female vocality.
Black Ties and Lullabies (Playboys, #3) by Jane Graves
Scholars generally describe the structure of the story as tripartite, and the events of the first two sections are both triggered by female speech. Enide is virtually silent throughout the first section of the romance; throughout her betrothal to Erec, their dispute with the other knight and his lady, and their travels to the court of King Arthur, she has no direct speech at all. Before her marriage, her speech is alluded to only twice: The maiden did not refuse it: Grau 82 no longer cared a straw for it.
The love between the two of them made the maiden more bold: Before she arose again, she had lost the name of maiden; in the morning she was a new lady. Why did I come here from my land? The earth should truly swallow me up, since the very best of knights, the boldest and the bravest, the most loyal, the most courtly that was ever count or king, has, because of me, completely abandoned all chivalry.
Background
Now have I truly shamed him; I should not have wished it for anything. Erec seems to be angry with Enide, perhaps interpreting her parole as that of a stereotypical female scold, despite the fact that her words were not actually intended for him. I shall be punished in my pride, and it is entirely right that I should be. Take care not to speak to me, if I do not speak to you first.
Go speedily before, and ride in complete confidence. Tenez vos de parler a moi, se ge ne vos aresne avant. We hear none of his internal thoughts, and he is fairly taciturn throughout the romance. Not only is her speech abundant, but it differs in nature from that of the other characters. But if my lord were killed here, nothing could comfort me: I would be dead and done for. Now I value my words too highly, since I have delayed speaking so long. I know full well that those who are coming are bent on doing ill.
Oh, God, how will I tell him? All right, let him! I shall tell him nevertheless. Mes se mes sires ert ci morz, de moi ne seroit nus conforz: Ne leirai que je ne li die. The start of this pattern of speech— her address to the sleeping Erec—follows quickly upon her change in status to feme rather than pucele, suggesting again a connection between marital status and problematic speech. Each time they are about to be attacked her decision-making process is voiced, though apparently silently or softly as she is not reproached for these words, and each time she finally speaks up to warn Erec about the pending attacks.
This is in stark contrast to Erec, whose thoughts we virtually never hear. It is unclear whether Erec is always in fact aware of the threats, but each time he is angry with Enide for breaking his command. Instead he seems angered by her very power to speak despite his commands, even when her life is most under the control and protection of her husband.
And yet I knew very well that you had little esteem for me. You make bad use of this kindness, for I am in no way grateful to you; be assured that I hate you for it; I have told you this and I tell you again. I shall forgive you again this time, but take care another time, and do not look in my direction, for you would behave very foolishly, since I do not like your words.
Et ne por quant tres bien savoie que gueres ne me priseiez. This correlation between Enide the Wife and unfavorable stereotypes such as those discussed earlier in the chapter has been used as evidence of the misogynistic nature of the romance. She generally speaks for the good of her husband and herself, and it is unclear why Erec wants her to be silent. From the point when she is ordered to keep silent, in fact, Enide seems to become the primary sympathetic character.
Courtly Literature or Misogyny? Grau 87 from a lover without explanation, and her struggle to keep this command makes her more sympathetic. On both sides she was very badly off, so that she knew not which course to choose: She deliberated within herself; often she prepared to speak so that her tongue moved, but her voice could not get out, for out of fear she clenched her teeth, and withheld the words inside. Thus she governed and fettered herself: See, for example, Grace M.
Culture and Context, ed. Keith Busby and Erik Kooper Amsterdam: Romance Languages Annual 8 Heroine or Female Hero? Essays in Memory of Maureen Fries, ed. Romance Languages Annual 5 Lacy and Joan Tasker Grimbert Cambridge: Walter de Gruyter, , chap. Ensi se justice et destraint: Enide convinces him to wait until the following day, giving the couple time to escape. While she is not unfaithful, Enide uses seductive and deceptive speech in this episode, lying and manipulating the lord. It may be argued that, although Enide's performance is only verbal, it surpasses anything Erec has done…As they escape together riding the same horse, one infers that on the level of love, if not of chivalry, they are again equals.
Douglas Kelly Lexington, KY: French Forum, , I fear neither your blows nor your threats. Beat me, strike me, go ahead: Towards Guivret she came, seized his reins, and said to him: Enide tells the story of their adventures, which are overheard and carried back to court. She fully told her the whole adventure, word for word, omitting nothing…While they were speaking together, one lady walked away alone, and went to tell the barons about it, in order to augment and increase the joy.
She listens to gossip at court, and then chides and disobeys her husband, offers herself to another man although disingenuously , lies, curses a nobleman and reveals secrets. But each time her voice is actually used to protect and better herself and her husband. As we have seen, despite misogynistic traditions in much Old French literature, there are possibilities for differing, even subversive readings—interpretations of these stories that are empowering rather than degrading.
In fact, Enide speaks far more than any other character, including Erec, in this story, and her speech is characterized by more exclamations and self-directed questions—that is, by more excessive speech—than that of other characters. As in the misogynistic literature discussed above, Erec et Enide seems to maintain a notion of woman as garrulous, of gender difference as indicated by difference in vocal behavior. The peasant says in his proverb that one may hold in contempt something that is worth much more than one believes; therefore he does well to make good use of his learning according to whatever understanding he has, for he who neglects his learning may easily keep silent something that would later give much pleasure.
Grau 93 that he does not act intelligently who does not give free rein to his knowledge, as long as God gives him the grace to do so. Despite the explicit nature of the prologue and the fairly straightforward narrative of the romance, the variety of interpretations of Erec et Enide is surprisingly large. But as Erec learns to bien aprandre what Enide has to say, they are saved from danger and go on to free others, build their marriage, and rule successfully.
The ways in which they use their voices—to convert, to nag, to warn or to reveal injustice—vary in relation to their genre and the sexual or marital status of the women involved. In many cases, their voices elicit a violent response from the men who wish to control them. Like the women described by Juvenal or Andreas Capellanus, these vernacular heroines curse, lie, scold and babble. However, it is possible to reread these stories with an eye to the potential for female strength and positive influence. The saints use their tongues, figuratively and literally, to fight against injustice and masculine abuse of power.
The wives of the fabliaux pair the power of their voices with their rationality and intelligence to dominate men and make themselves the heroines of their stories. And the women of these courtly romances each resist their silencing by combining gendered behavior with superior morality, righting wrongs or improving the lives of men around them. As we will see in the next three chapters, some of the stereotypical speech habits of literary women translate into textual and musical patterns in songs that contain a female subject.
Grau 96 Chapter Three: Ja ne savront mai pancee, They will never know my feelings, Mai por aulz crever ferai but even if it makes them choke, I will Chanson ke je chanterai: Love, to which I am committed, wills that I love, so I will love him. Se je disxoie an mon chant: If I stated in my song: Ke ne die de cuer gai: God send you misfortune! And have thwarted many a love. I have for my lover be forgotten. In spite of the all I will say: The northern songs include so many anonymous and male-authored female-voice songs that they have inspired the creation by modern scholars of a generic taxonomy for songs in a female- voice.
These love songs are distinguished by their love theme, female subject, and generally simpler language. Droz, , A melody is extant only for the refrain of this song. At the same time, this particular sub-genre usually includes some of the features of courtly love song, which are evident here in the traits ascribed to the lover: Consequently, there is a large degree of flexibility in the scope of these categories. Formally, these genres have little in common beyond the prominence of female speakers, and indeed many scholars exclude one or another from the category of chansons de femme.
Others include these genres because women are prominent characters with extensive direct discourse. Picard, , Peter Lang, , 3. Reclam, ; Anne L. The relationship between formal, registral, and thematic categories in the literature on the chanson de femme is a complex one, with distinctions in one field often influencing classification in another. For further discussion, see Chapter 1 above. Maurice Wilmotte, 2 vols. The songs by women whose names are known are relatively few in number, but there were undoubtedly many more women composers, and whereas their names are lost to us, some of their songs are probably still extant, though bereft of proper attribution.
We hope in this way to rectify a situation that for many years has denied women their rightful place in the pantheon of Old French medieval lyric poets. However, there is some danger in compensating for the lack of known historical women authors through inclusion of anonymous works. As these pieces far outnumber those attributed to female authors, such collections run the risk of obscuring the existence of named female authors. For collections of female voice songs that generally ascribe such songs to anonymous women, see Eglal Doss-Quinby et al.
Grimbert and Beverly J. Grau The existence of these two conflicting trends suggests the difficulty of discussing authorship and the role of women in medieval song. Where, exactly, are the women in Old French lyric? Because arguments concerning authorship are virtually impossible to confirm, we must look to other aspects of the lyric for a broader view of the place of women in this tradition.
Taking the first steps in such an investigation, this chapter considers the presence of real women in the general cultural environs that surrounded the northern French song tradition, a context markedly different from that of southern France. While the omission, with some exceptions, of women from the written record of this tradition often results in the impression that women were absent from its reception and production completely, a broader picture of the historical circumstances in which this repertory was produced and heard suggests that women were involved in every aspect of the tradition.
By using as case studies the archival and biographical information around a few prominent women, I will establish the presence of women at the center of French seigneurial courts. Along with the court setting for performance, this chapter explores the make-up of audiences in urban centers such as Paris and Arras. I will look at what is known of the circumstances of performance in both courtly and urban environments to help establish the possibility that men and women listened and reacted to these works together. If women encountered these songs in a mixed audience, listening and responding alongside their male counterparts, our method of interpretation must take into account the possibilities entailed by this environment.
Necessarily, any discussion of medieval audience and its response is to some extent speculative; only a few extant sources describe the performance and reception of any medieval literature, much less the oral performance of lyric. We will consider whether women may have been part of the reception of songs in an environment where their opinions might be noted and incorporated by both male and female poet-composers.
In my investigation, I also seek to restore a sense of space to the imagining of medieval audiences. Georges Duby's famous depiction of a court populated primarily by juvenes— young, unmarried itinerant knights, always searching for adventure and gain—suggests an almost entirely male audience for romance and lyric. Indiana University Press, , xiii. University of California Press, , Grau luxurious 'court of love' that attracted the best poets from all over Europe. While these images have been challenged and refined, they still capture the imaginations of those writing about courtly culture, and underlie their assumptions about the make-up of a courtly audience.
Much of the information we do have comes from the texts of the songs themselves. The tradition of the envoi, in which the poet may address or praise his or her patron, gives us a description or name of at least one potential audience member; however, it tells us little about the actual listening practices surrounding the production of song in the period, or about the more extensive audiences it must have reached.
Other evidence can be mined for information about audience and listening practice as well. Shapiro's conclusions about performance are drawn from both the text and its social context. Despite the fact that this has not been confirmed by other sources, it persists especially in histories aimed at more popular audiences. Grau the manuscript that transmits it; the ownership and signs of use for a particular manuscript offer clues to at least one set of listeners, although usually one living generations after the death of the song's author.
In Catherine Parsoneault's dissertation, for example, she investigates the political context and illustrative program of the Montpellier Codex, an important source of thirteenth-century French motets, and suggests that it was created for a particular patroness, Marie de Brabant, queen of France from to While this does not mean the songs were written for the royal court, if accurate, Parsoneault's conclusions succeed in using manuscript evidence, in context, to suggest a particular, and unexpected, audience for these works.
External written sources, such as romances, historical chronicles, sermons, and treatises, on the other hand, provide us with descriptions of music-making. John Baldwin, a historian of thirteenth- century Paris, derives a number of conclusions about the activities of French aristocrats from this romance. Baldwin, Aristocratic Life in Medieval France: Johns Hopkins University Press, However, we may turn to one of Christopher Page's articles for some useful entry points into a consideration of audience and gender.
While he also discusses the possible valorization of silent listening and the Francien dialect, one of the most prominent inquiries is the role of gender: While men conducted the business of the realm in the main hall, or sale, women pursued their own duties and leisure in the chambres. Page refers to an illustration from a version of the Old French Guiron le courtois c.
The illustration shows an enthroned King Arthur and his all-male entourage listening intently to a performer who stands apart from the crowd. Grau eat at the high table of the dais. Such occasions have their importance, but many passages in romance suggest the sale was a masculine space, at least on a day-to- day basis, used by the magnate and his retinue of familiars, scribes and knights. The approach usefully opens out issues of the gendering of space in various ways that invite further questions. While Page makes a clear, though not conclusive, argument that such a gendered listening practice was the norm at least at the royal court, he only begins to suggest the significance such a practice might have for the hearing of these songs.
Because it seems clear that a purely masculine audience would provide a quite different reception for a love song than an audience that included women, especially in the case of songs that heavily feature or quote female characters, I would like to examine the idea that listening and reception took place overwhelmingly in gender-segregated situations. If, as Roberta Krueger suggests, the performance of misogynistic texts provided an opportunity for debate over gender issues, it is important to consider the possibility that female-voice song was performed in mixed company, and thus would have invited such confrontation.
We know from prologues, dedications and epilogues that the authors of romances were sometimes concerned about the reactions of female patrons to the depiction of women in their works. If I have blamed Eufeme a great deal, I have praised Silence more. Certainly by the time of the late-medieval Querelle de la Rose, instigated in part by Christine de Pizan, there had grown a tradition of men and women publicly responding to the representation of women in contemporary literature. Quoted and translated in Roberta L. Cambridge University Press, , 4- 7. While Krueger suggests the apology is backhanded because it goes on to praise the patroness likely Eleanor of Aquitaine as an exception to the fickleness and flightiness of women, the gesture nonetheless assumes the possibility that the patroness might object to the portrayal of women.
For more on this passage and how Eleanor of Aquitaine may have read it, see Tamara F. Lord and Lady, ed. For editions and translations of the primary documents, see Joseph L. Baird and John Robert Kane, eds. Her abhorrence for anything beyond basic hygiene and jeans and t-shirts was enough to make me question if there was another stereotype at play here. But as much as these issues bugged me, I kept reading until the happy, problem-solving, family-creating end, because the author is such a skilled storyteller.
The narrative, the sparkling, witty dialogue, and the colorful secondary characters created a very enjoyable, happy escape. And isn't that what we want in a romance? One of the best books I've ever read. Sweet, passion and full of love. That's just what I need. The dose of happiness. I enjoyed the humour, romance, sadness everything. It's just amazing, really! Something that happened in that safe room altered the course of two different lives, Jeremy's and Bernadette's. Jeremy's a multimillionaire, good-looking and womanizer. Bernadette or Bernie is a bodyguard, plain-looking and tough woman.
This two looking really weird be One of the best books I've ever read. This two looking really weird being together but well, love is blind. I liked Bernie because she's badass, independent, very good to people, funny, kind and she from military awesome! I wish I could fulfill my dream to join military and apply for aeronautical engineer.
She care about other's welfare instead of herself. Love her for that. And she's not kinda girl who reads Cosmo, wearing make-up, perfume and nail polish, and wearing girly stuffs. I liked Jeremy because he's a good man. All those things he did and being a jerk because he felt insecure, vulnerable and unpleasant past. I liked what he did to Bernie. He wants to prove he can make Bernie happy and be a good father to his children. There's a lot of hilarious parts and these I liked the most.
LOL till my stomach hurt. Looking forward to read this kinda sort of contemporary romance for more. Aug 12, Suzie Quint rated it really liked it Shelves: I've enjoyed every one of Jane Graves books that I've read and this was no exception. I liked the idea of a woman bodyguard but what made this special for me were the supporting characters, particularly the other bodyguards on the team.
I LOVE Max and how he's all silent and hulking but how protective he was even if it was going to cost him his job. Sometimes it really is the secondary characters that make a book sing. Jul 09, Dinjolina rated it it was ok. When I think about it I don't think even I would want this heroine. Foul tempered and never ever ever cleaned up from her 'I am wanting to be a man' routine? Oct 03, Book Binge rated it really liked it.
I'm all about the contemporary romance. I love them and I haven't read too many Jane Graves books but man do I need to change that because I adored this book. I love him because he didn't take himself too seriously, he could hold his own in a bar fight and he could tangle with the bulkiest of them but he was flirty spice and a total playboy.
I adore him and Jeremy Bridges reminded me of the kind of hero Ben Lewis I'm all about the contemporary romance. I adore him and Jeremy Bridges reminded me of the kind of hero Ben Lewis was so of course, I loved the hell out of him. Bernie is a bodyguard and her boss is Jeremy Bridges, an ultra rich playboy who has too much money at his disposal. He goes through girls like water and Bernie is pretty disgusted with his lifestyle. He's a playboy who dates only bimbos and never puts himself out there for a real relationship with a real woman.
She, on the other hand, is too serious for her own good and could do with a night on the town to let loose every once and a while.
Jeremy doesn't take anything seriously and Bernie takes everything seriously and one night, the fireworks explode between them which in turn leaves Bernie pregnant. Watching as these two fought their attraction to each other and then fought each other at every turn made for a great contemporary romance.
Graves did a wonderful job of making me laugh, making me care for all of the characters in this book and making my eyebrows rise at the steamy romance between Jeremy and Bernie. I loved that Bernie helped Jeremy realize that letting people in for more than a day wasn't going to kill him and I loved that she helped him realize that he couldn't throw money at everyone and expect them to bend to his will.
With Jeremy, I was glad that he was able to show Bernie that she could let her guard down and count on someone other than herself and the world wouldn't end. Graves did a great job of showing the reader that both of these characters had something to learn from each other and it made for a more engaging story that I really enjoyed. Jeremy was a fantastic hero, one that I want for myself. He made me laugh, he made sigh and he really made me want to track him down and have my merry way with him. His character didn't feel fake to me and I appreciated Graves efforts in making him normal and real.
I wanted to get to know him more with each page and more than anything, I wanted him to get his happy ending. She could have easily been one of those heroines that was too uptight to be any fun but she wasn't. She was the right amount of serious and the right amount of fun to make an interesting character and I really enjoyed getting to know her. I enjoyed seeing the many people she had in her life and the many people who loved her, seeing her open up to Jeremy was a great part of reading this story.
The story itself was enjoyable. Seeing just how different both Jeremy and Bernie were and watching them realize how much they liked each other was fun. I'd definitely recommend this book to fans of Jane Graves work but also to fans of contemporary romance, this is a definite keeper for me. This review was originally posted by Rowena on Book Binge. Mar 10, Emily rated it it was amazing Shelves: When he puts his life in danger and ignores her instructions, her temper flares ending in a night of passion and her walking out on him.
Several weeks later, Bernie finds that their one night could tie them together forever but fearing that he will continue to take life for granted she devises a plan to keep him out of hers. When Jeremy finds out Bernie is pregnant he couldn't be happier. Bernie is unlike any woman he has been with but he has a short amount of time to prove to her that he is a man she can respect and will be a fantastic father. His only hurdle is showing her the man beneath the facade.
Full review on Single Titles http: Oct 05, Natalija rated it really liked it Shelves: This was another fun read from Jane Graves. What I like the most about her books is originality. Such a great book. Jeremy and Bernie are one of my most favorite couples. Oct 12, Gisele rated it it was amazing.
Bernadette Hogan does everything she can to take care of her Mom. Bridges is a ladies man with an eccentric streak. They all offer and he loves to let them females have their way with him. What he sees in Bernie? When all Bernadette Hogan does everything she can to take care of her Mom. Well, until the result of their mistake throws her world into turmoil that is.
Can a womanizer like Bridges turn his life around and be the person she needs him to be? Believe me, it pains me to say this. The general idea of the plot was good. In reaction to a certain incident that occurred, she was the one to take control. I definitely preferred that to the other way around. At least she was ashamed by the way she handled things afterwards. The one thing that made me like Bernie probably was the devotion to her mother. One could tell how much her wellbeing meant to her. She made sacrifices to ensure it. She had the support of her boss Gabe and colleagues — her friend Max kept an eye on her.
I liked him a lot, especially for threatening Bridges. Overall, a lovable bunch! Furthermore Jeremy comes off as a slimy asshole. His superior smirk after Bernie had to save him made me mad. Because of his smugness I almost lost it when it became clear that Bernie was attracted to him despite his unbearable egocentricity.
He was trying to intimidate and humiliate her. Who wants a guy like that? Not enough information about his past was given too late, as well. Graves failed to show us another — better — side of him. There was no real depth, neither to the characters, nor to the story itself. A few funny lines and sweet moments, however, can be found. Beware of Spoilers A few of my favorite quotes for those of you who are interested: I just want you to do the world a favour and keep your genetic material to yourself.
Finally fed up though, not even her secret attraction can help her over look Jeremy putting both of their lives on the line without a care. When one night of danger and anger leads to a few minutes of passion Bernie hits the door running only to realize weeks later the consequences of her actions. Jeremy Bridges is a man who must be in full control at all times. Rising from an abusive and neglected childhood he has built a multi-million dollar business from the ground up; now never wanting for anything, he expects only the best - women, booze, cars, houses.
I am so glad that I finally picked it up though because I was wrong, wrong, wrong. I ended up loving this story of a redeemable rake and a tough girl who in the end shows she is a woman inside and out. But as the story progresses we come to find out that he came from the worse kind of upbringing yet strived to get out of that hellhole and worked his way through school and is now an amazingly successful business man, and he never wants to go back to any aspect of his upbringing.
When Bernie showed up in his life, he may not have realized it right away, but eventual he sees that she brought something into it that he was missing, and for her he strives to be a better man and a good father. Him coming to terms with that and trying to woo Bernie over was a sweet, humorous and sometimes heart wrenching journey.
By the middle of this novel I was fully invested in these characters. Bernie starts off as a pretty cold, tough-as-nails, just-one-of-the-guys type of lady. Sometimes those bad ass heroines are just too frosty for me to warm my heart to. But then we started dipping into her emotions; her secret attraction to Jeremy, her felling in-superior to his other conquests, his financial status and her lack of one, her freaking out about being a single mother and trying to balance that and a job and taking care of her own mother all at the same time and BAM, I thought wow, she is just like any other woman I know!
Black Ties and Lullabies was a tug-a-war between these two strong characters, there was a lot of growth for them and interesting side characters to help push the story along, but beneath it all it was a true love story. I think this would be good for contemporary romance fans looking for a nice and easy read to relax with. Nov 08, Amy rated it liked it Shelves: Her profession for the past two years has been a personal bodyguard to self made millionaire and womanizer Jeremy Bridges. Jeremy has never looked twice at Bernie, especially to recognize her as anything beyond a controlling and opinionated employee.
After returning from one of the latest social galas, both Jeremy and Bernie find themselves in the middle of a robbery in his home and both end up in his safe room awaiting back up. Bernie is furious that Jeremy did not heed her warning with regard to his safety; Jeremy is frustrated that she was right. What starts as an argument leads to full out anger sex. After the incident, Bernie informs Jeremy that she is quitting her job as his bodyguard and will not be coming back. Jeremy is flabbergasted at what happened between them and firmly believes that with what he is paying her, she will definitely return to him once she has cooled off.
Bernie does not return, but instead discovers that their unexpected sexual liaison has led her to an unplanned pregnancy, so she is far from being rid of Jeremy. As the pregnancy progresses, Jeremy is determined to prove to Bernie that he intends to be a dependable father to his children and that he is not the shallow, uncaring playboy Bernie believes him to be.
Author Jane Graves paints a clear picture of a woman Bernie who appears very strong and intimidating on the outside, but in truth is very caring and somewhat insecure on the inside. She is determined to not have to depend on anyone but herself with regard to her family. However, she longs for the fantasy of a devoted husband to love and help care for her children. The loves scenes were low on the sizzle factor, but the transformation of the characters and how they adapted to change and growth was relevant and believable.
While I tend to seek more depth in character and plot with contemporary romances, many will find this story to be just enough to satisfy and provide a warm fuzzy after thought in their reading escape. Evidently that was the kind of person you turned into when your mother named you after toilet paper. Originally posted at http: Feb 16, Kelly Moran rated it liked it Shelves: This book was supposed to be released in Feb , but has been pushed back to June My cover also looks different.
La sélection romance : c'est le moment de commencer une belle histoire
Jane resides in the Dallas area with her husband. A good girl can be bad for one night, but can a bad boy be good for a lifetime? Bernadette "Bernie" Hogan has spent the past two years as a bodyguard to Texas' most eligible--if not infuriating-- bachelor. She never makes mistakes, not when caring for her mother with Alzheimer's, and certainly not on the job. But one night, self-made millionaire Jeremy Bridges pushes her too far, and a passionate fling with her boss leaves Bernie confused, embarrassed, and pregnant. Can Jeremy convince Bernie that he's ready to change from the partying playboy to a dependable dad?
If I'm being honest, this book fell a little flat for me about half-way through. And without issuing a spoiler alert, the ending was too overly sentimental for my tastes. I understand what the author was trying to do in showing growth for both the hero and heroine-- her with the hormones of pregnancy and him growing up-- but Jeremy lost his humor, and Bernie lost her edge, which is what made these two so captivating from the first page.
I'm not a big fan of the "pregnancy plots" as they have to be done just right, but I will credit the book for not taking the "rushing into marriage" scenario most do, or for the "hiding the pregnancy" as typically shown. In saying that, Jane has an innate way of illustrating her surroundings and her secondary characters extremely well. It's why I've loved her books for some time, and why this won't deter me from future reads. Most memorable in this story for me was Bernie's mother, Eleanor's, struggle with the early stages of Alzheimer's and it's progression. It's a horrible disease, and it was not made light of nor portrayed improperly for creative content.
Kelly Moran Author and Reviewer Bookpleasures May 25, Jacki rated it it was ok Shelves: Playboy Jeremy Bridges lives the high life, running a multimillion-dollar company and entertaining a variety of beautiful women. Jeremy loves living on his own terms, and nothing his sarcastic bodyguard Bernadette has to say about his lifestyle or taste in women will change his mind.
Bernadette Hogan isn't Jeremy's type. Instead of beautiful and brainless, Bernie is tough, smart and irritated by his refusal to take her seriously. Their combative working relationship snowballs into a boiling-hot o Playboy Jeremy Bridges lives the high life, running a multimillion-dollar company and entertaining a variety of beautiful women.
Their combative working relationship snowballs into a boiling-hot one-night stand, but leaves Bernie intent on walking out on Jeremy forever. However, her plan is derailed when she finds out she's having Jeremy's baby and that he plans on being the involved father he never had. The repartee between strong, compassionate Bernie and emotionally unavailable Jeremy sparks and sparkles. He struggles to convince her she needs his help, while she shows him the joy of helping those in need. Bernie is at once admirable and intensely relatable as she stands up to overwhelming responsibility, eventually learning that accepting help is an act of trust, not weakness.
Watching her school him in the art of kindness is both touching and hilarious as she befuddles and beguiles him into realizing his potential as a man, a mate and the father her child deserves. It bugged me that Bernie started out as a bad ass bodyguard but underwent a transformation as the book continued that wasn't necessarily flattering. I think the author was trying to show that Bernie became more trusting and comfortable with her feminine side, but she does seem weaker and allows the hero to get his way when he's being way too controlling.
But that's just my feminist interpretation of the situation. Sign up for this free and awesome newsletter at http: Jun 10, Mary Gramlich rated it it was amazing. But Bernadette Hogan did both of those things and finds herself pregnant by her former boss, the self-made multimillionaire Jeremy Bridges the bain of her existence. Bernie convinced herself Jeremy and his love of big boobs on blonde headed women would make it so she could walk away from him and never have him in her life again. Jeremy never thought he would ever be a parent but now that is he about to open that door he plans to right the wrongs he learned from his own childhood and be the kind of parent he dreamed would have been in his life growing up.
Jeremy wants what he craves the most, complete control over this new turn in the road for him which is what drives Bernie completely crazy. This change also has Jeremy acknowledge that he grew to the status he has by hard work and made him more money than he can spend in 10 lifetimes but does it make him happy? The child they created has opened his eyes to a life he never could have dreamed to have but will his inability to let go and let love happen ruin everything or can Bernie show him how to make love and money both count in your life. Loved this book from beginning to end!
May 16, Shxrxn rated it liked it. And if one was good, two was better. Are we clear on that? The truth will go with me to the grave. Will you trust me on that? Prenups are for people who plan on getting a divorce. I have so much, Bernie. Jul 01, Cheryl rated it really liked it. Bernadette Hogan works as a bodyguard. This was part of the plan. No one would suspect that a woman would be a bodyguard. If it was not for the money, than Bernadette would have asked to be reassigned earlier. Jeremy is a womanizer. Jeremy believes that Bernadette will come back.
When she doesn Bernadette Hogan works as a bodyguard. I thought that this book was such a fun book to read. That is saying something when a book is fun to read. She did not take any crap from Jeremy, just because he is a celebrity.
She called it like it was. Though, Jeremy did not want to admit it in the beginning but he liked Bernadette because she had brains. You would not tell that this is the type of woman that Jeremy liked from his past dating life. Jeremy turned out to be a good guy. He was only portrayed as a womanizer for a brief period in this book, which was nice. The rest of the time, I found him funny. Black Ties and Lullabies earns four stars! Jun 30, Julie rated it liked it. Why I read this book: I was in the mood for a light contemporary romance.
It was a light read, I didn't have to over think or become so wrapped up in angst I needed a massage to loosen the knots in my shoulders after reading. The plot fits the formula for a chicklit and happy ending. What I didn't like: The female main character is a bad-ass body guard who is suppose to be able to kill a person six ways to Sunday. However, we don't get to see that side of her because she's pregnant t Why I read this book: