A History of the Breast by Marilyn Yalom 1998, Paperback: items on eBay.com

Publisher's Note
In this provocative, pioneering, and wholly engrossing cultural history, noted scholar Marilyn Yalom explores twenty-five thousand years of ideas, images, and perceptions of the female breast--in religion, psychology, politics, society, and the arts.Through the centuries, the breast has been laden with hugely powerful and contradictory meanings. There is the "good breast" of reverence and life, the breast that nourishes infants and entire communities, as depicted in ancient idols, fifteenth-century Italian Madonnas, and representations of equality in the French Revolution. Then there is the "bad breast" of Ezekiels wanton harlots, Shakespeares Lady Macbeth, and the torpedo-breasted dominatrix, symbolizing enticement and aggression. Yalom examines these contradictions--and illuminates the implications behind them.A fascinating, astute, and richly allusive journey from Paleolithic goddesses to modern day feminists, A History of the Breast is full of insight and surprises. As Yalom says, "I intend to make you think about women's breasts as you never have before." In this, she succeeds brilliantly.

Industry Reviews
"Ms. Yalon's stately romp through history is variously enlightening, amusing and enraging, and by the time the French Revolution arrives and the female breast is assigned yet another iconic responsibility...one is tempted to mutter, why don't they get it off our chest already?"
New York Times Book Review - Natalie Angier (02/23/1997)

"Her writing is lucid...moving beyond the dense textuality which marked so much work during the 1980s to a calm open space where empirical data about the habits and customs of the breast are allowed to inform close analysis of selected paintings."
Literary Review - Kathryn Hughes (03/19/1997)

"A rich and confident work...ambitious in scope, refreshingly opinionated...."
Boston Globe - Amanda Heller

"Sacred, erotic, domestic, even civic incarnations of the breast from Paleolithic times to the present in an ambitious catalogue of necessarily selective cultural history....the bibliography is a gem for any starting student."
Spence

"A work of spectacular cultural scope..."
Clemons

"In this copiously researched volume, the disembodied breast floats over the social landscape like a Magritte apple. Yalom is interested in how this part of the female anatomy has been viewed in political and popular culture: among the breast mentioned here are those oif Isis; of Lorenzetti's Madonna del Latte (one of the first nursing Madonnas) and of Jayne Mansfield. Illustrated, too, are the Sevres milk bowls from Marie Antoinette's diary, which were said to be molded on the breasts of the queen herself.
MacNeille

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