In Sappho in Early Modern England, Harriette Andreadis examines public and private expressions of female same-sex sexuality in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England. Before the language of modern sexual identities developed, a variety of discourses in both literary and extraliterary texts began to establish a lexicon of female intimacy. Looking at accounts of non-normative female sexualities in travel narratives, anatomies, midwifery texts, and marital advice books, Andreadis outlines the vernacular through which a female same-sex erotics first entered verbal consciousness. She also demonstrates how women writers created a more evasive erotic language to express an intimate experience of female same-sex desire.

"Sappho in Early Modern England is an astonishing achievement. The book has a historical scope that places it in a category all its own....I think this book will have a profound impact on the study of the history of sexuality for years to come." ...George Haggerty, author of Men in Love

"This eagerly awaited book offers compelling evidence that in early modern England, an intensified awareness of same-sex desire stirred not only public disapproval but a subtler, 'respectable' tradition of erotic writings by women themselves." ...Susan Lanser, author of Fictions of Authority

"This acute new study contributes a missing link to the ongoing project of writing the history of sexuality. Through careful and provocative readings of original texts and hitherto neglected writers, Andreadis locates an important shift in early modern constructions of female same-sex desire." ...Bruce Smith, author of Homosexual Desire in Shakespeare's England