Centre Parties: Polarization and Competition in European Parliamentary Democracies Book

The past is a different country. I felt that very acutely when reading this: a dense 18th-century social satire couched as a semi-philosophical meditation on gender and politics in an imagined parallel society. There are twice as many endnotes as there are pages, and I still felt like I was missing so much. I suppose it's partly the language; when I'm reading a medieval text, I'm fully conscious that I'm translating it, whereas here I kept on being tripped up by shifts of meaning in language that looks very close to my own.

Written by a woman, and every bit as angry as you'd expect at the near-absolute impunity of men to mistreat women, this is essentially a stream of vignettes about romantic relationships gone sour and lives wrecked by utter cads. Interesting, difficult, and more queer than I'd expected, with several discussions of "the Cabal" - a loose grouping of women who shun the company of men to a greater or lesser degree, enjoy cross-dressing (and/or find other women who do so attractive), and are frankly described as amorous towards each other. The only sensible course of action, really.