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Presence: A Hidden History of the Female Body
"[A] soulful, moving, sometimes cacophonous account of European women’s experiences and interior lives from about 1500 to 1800."—Mattie Kahn, The New York Times Book Review
A vibrant history of women’s bodies, expertise, and work from a major new writer—stylish, revelatory, and liberating.
Today, we understand the mind and the body to be distinct; that the mind exercises control over the flesh. But as Erin Maglaque experienced the transformations of pregnancy, abortion, birth, and care-giving, she began to doubt the truth of that dichotomy. In an effort to better understand her experiences, she found herself reaching to the premodern past, a period when the strange rubbed up against the strikingly when people accepted both levitation and the smallpox vaccine, witchcraft and universal gravitation; a time when understandings of the body and its capacity for thought were more expansive, and more unruly.
Structured as a biography of the author's own body, from girlhood and adolescence, to sex and abortion, to feeding and caring for an infant, to her experience caring for someone as they were dying, Erin places her personal history into a deep dialogue with the premodern past. She explores the relation between imagination and gender, between maternal and historical subjectivity; she positions female desire as a practice with a past, and offers gentler and more forgiving understandings of housekeeping, pregnancy, early miscarriage, abortion, birth, sleeplessness, and breastfeeding.
For readers of Amia Srinivasan’s The Right to Sex, Cat Bohannon’s Eve, and Olivia Laing’s Everybody, Presence is a unique experiment in historical thinking and embodied knowledge; a thoroughly researched, vibrant history of women’s bodies, expertise, and work from a major new writer.
A vibrant history of women’s bodies, expertise, and work from a major new writer—stylish, revelatory, and liberating.
Today, we understand the mind and the body to be distinct; that the mind exercises control over the flesh. But as Erin Maglaque experienced the transformations of pregnancy, abortion, birth, and care-giving, she began to doubt the truth of that dichotomy. In an effort to better understand her experiences, she found herself reaching to the premodern past, a period when the strange rubbed up against the strikingly when people accepted both levitation and the smallpox vaccine, witchcraft and universal gravitation; a time when understandings of the body and its capacity for thought were more expansive, and more unruly.
Structured as a biography of the author's own body, from girlhood and adolescence, to sex and abortion, to feeding and caring for an infant, to her experience caring for someone as they were dying, Erin places her personal history into a deep dialogue with the premodern past. She explores the relation between imagination and gender, between maternal and historical subjectivity; she positions female desire as a practice with a past, and offers gentler and more forgiving understandings of housekeeping, pregnancy, early miscarriage, abortion, birth, sleeplessness, and breastfeeding.
For readers of Amia Srinivasan’s The Right to Sex, Cat Bohannon’s Eve, and Olivia Laing’s Everybody, Presence is a unique experiment in historical thinking and embodied knowledge; a thoroughly researched, vibrant history of women’s bodies, expertise, and work from a major new writer.
320 pages, Hardcover
Published June 16, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
July 19, 2026
This is a super fascinating book full of fun historical tidbits. My favourite type of history book is the kind that shares vivid details of people’s actual daily lives, and this one totally fits the bill. The author is an expert on Europe in the early modern period, and she shares how people during this time thought of women’s bodily functions like childbirth, breastfeeding, sex, and sleep. Like did you know that it was once common in France for upper- and even middle-class parents to ship their children off to a wet nurse in the countryside for the first few years of their life? Fascinating!
It’s so interesting to see how the way people perceived women’s bodies shaped the way they lived. The only part of this book that didn’t quite land for me is the way the author integrates her own life into each chapter. Maybe it would resonate more with me if I were a mother, as a lot of her story is about reconnecting with her body and sexuality after childbirth, but during these sections I found myself longing to get back to the cool historical facts. Still, this book is absolutely worth a read, and you will feel smarter and more informed having read it.
Thank you to the publisher for giving me access to an eARC of this book!
It’s so interesting to see how the way people perceived women’s bodies shaped the way they lived. The only part of this book that didn’t quite land for me is the way the author integrates her own life into each chapter. Maybe it would resonate more with me if I were a mother, as a lot of her story is about reconnecting with her body and sexuality after childbirth, but during these sections I found myself longing to get back to the cool historical facts. Still, this book is absolutely worth a read, and you will feel smarter and more informed having read it.
Thank you to the publisher for giving me access to an eARC of this book!
Did Not Finish
January 12, 2026I was very excited about this book and I want to thank Netgalley and the publisher for approving me for an ARC. Unfortunately, I've been trying to read it since November and haven't even made it to the halfway mark. I tried again today and I felt like I was just ready to let it go.
While the subject matter interests me, I'm stuck on the chapters about pregnancy and can't seem to get past them. I also thought that some of the sections read like infodumping a long collection of historical facts, and the dialogue with the author's biography didn't feel smooth. Nonetheless, clearly a lot of research went into this and it's well-written, so I'm sure it's a good book for anyone interested in this topic.
While the subject matter interests me, I'm stuck on the chapters about pregnancy and can't seem to get past them. I also thought that some of the sections read like infodumping a long collection of historical facts, and the dialogue with the author's biography didn't feel smooth. Nonetheless, clearly a lot of research went into this and it's well-written, so I'm sure it's a good book for anyone interested in this topic.
June 9, 2026
Despite this being nonfiction, it was almost like a mystical read, making me feel connected to all women, past and present. The last time I felt like a book forced me to sit with my body and my relationship with it was when I read the Vagina Monologues when I was 18. I enjoyed it very much and despite it not being quite a 5 star read for me I plan on buying a copy.
August 31, 2026
I have always been intrigued by historical accounts of the “everyday” and especially of women, so the premise of this book was definitely up my alley. The chapters exploring the history of eating, desire, drudgery, and dying were most compelling to me, but I admit I struggled to make it through the other sections.
My inability to connect with the chapters surrounding pregnancy, breastfeeding, etc is maybe due in part to the fact that I’ve never had children, but I found the writing to drag at certain points. I’m not exactly sure what I expected but it felt more like a generalized summary of each topic with quotes from primary sources peppered in throughout. I also found the author’s personal interjections to feel clunky at times; I think the book could have benefited from either a deeper exploration and more details of her personal experience to draw stronger parallels/analysis OR by excluding those portions all together.
I do think that as a whole this book is worth a read if you’re interested in the subject matter — I might dive back in at some point in the future to read more thoroughly and maybe glean more from it!
My inability to connect with the chapters surrounding pregnancy, breastfeeding, etc is maybe due in part to the fact that I’ve never had children, but I found the writing to drag at certain points. I’m not exactly sure what I expected but it felt more like a generalized summary of each topic with quotes from primary sources peppered in throughout. I also found the author’s personal interjections to feel clunky at times; I think the book could have benefited from either a deeper exploration and more details of her personal experience to draw stronger parallels/analysis OR by excluding those portions all together.
I do think that as a whole this book is worth a read if you’re interested in the subject matter — I might dive back in at some point in the future to read more thoroughly and maybe glean more from it!
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
*Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance reader copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.*
Presence details the history of the female body by discussing topics of eating, pregnancy, abortion, birth, sleep, breastfeeding, desire, drudgery and dying. This book dives into historical facts around these topics but also discusses the authors personal experiences. People in the past especially men believed strange things about women regarding their bodies and this is a fascinating look at how certain beliefs have changed.
I enjoyed reading this and I had a good time learning the historical beliefs about women’s bodies. This is written well and even when I wasn’t the most interested in a topic I still found this compelling. I liked learning about the historical beliefs regarding pregnancy specifically what made a fetus human and the changing beliefs on fat/thin bodies. I think this book also shows how connections can be made to anything and at the time it will make sense. For example, in the past some people believed conditions a wet nurse had would be transferred to the child and at the time that easily made sense to people. I will be recommending this and I really appreciate what this author had to say on their experience of being a woman.
Favourite quote:
“A fetus, quick, ensouled, formed, was still only held to be human, by the law; it took being born to become human.”
Presence details the history of the female body by discussing topics of eating, pregnancy, abortion, birth, sleep, breastfeeding, desire, drudgery and dying. This book dives into historical facts around these topics but also discusses the authors personal experiences. People in the past especially men believed strange things about women regarding their bodies and this is a fascinating look at how certain beliefs have changed.
I enjoyed reading this and I had a good time learning the historical beliefs about women’s bodies. This is written well and even when I wasn’t the most interested in a topic I still found this compelling. I liked learning about the historical beliefs regarding pregnancy specifically what made a fetus human and the changing beliefs on fat/thin bodies. I think this book also shows how connections can be made to anything and at the time it will make sense. For example, in the past some people believed conditions a wet nurse had would be transferred to the child and at the time that easily made sense to people. I will be recommending this and I really appreciate what this author had to say on their experience of being a woman.
Favourite quote:
“A fetus, quick, ensouled, formed, was still only held to be human, by the law; it took being born to become human.”
September 15, 2026
The concept is intriguing, the topic is important, and there’s no doubt that Maglaque did her research—which might be part of the problem. It’s academic, dry, lacks cohesion and flow from paragraph to paragraph, and simply doesn’t engage the reader. Odd choices, like no captions or credits for the interesting (and well-chosen) artwork and heavy, glossy paper that makes the book weigh twice as much as it should. Integrating her modern-day experiences with those of women in the past (pregnancy, abortion, breastfeeding, desire) could have worked but didn’t. A disappointment all the way around.
July 5, 2026
I’m not a woman, so you may add whatever biases or misconceptions or ignorance to my opinion that you may like. In sum, my opinion is that more historical record (and footnotes/endnotes) and less autobiography would have made this a more compelling or interesting read. One hundred pages into reading and I realized I was dreading the sentences with pronouns — and the book is loaded with them. And if you’re reading this review, you are probably already tired of the I’s and my’s already populating this paragraph. It’s like that.
The “yada, yada”, meh, or “woe is you” or “what makes your life experience so important for me to know about?” percolates up through each chapter like a dark roast of coffee, darkening the clear enjoyment of learning about the history of the female experience, until its acid, bitter and unenjoyable. Some connection to the personal lived experience would have been great, but oh, how self-absorbed the book seems to me. I was reminded of reading Susan Sontag or Joan Didion, but not in the good essayist way.
Further evidence that this is foremost an autobiography, not a history (no matter how ‘hidden’ the book’s subtitle suggests) is the lack of sourcing or elaboration through footnotes or endnotes or even captions for untitled images scattered throughout the book. The author’s purpose seems not to educate or illuminate. This is personal, it seems mostly about coming to terms with a person’s physically, sensually lived experience. We’re told it’s about the awakening to the singularity of the human being not the mind-body duality but that makes it too cerebral again. It’s more a book about the author. Even the Kirkus Review said as much but more politely. I think the phrase might have been something like ‘perhaps too personal’.
I noted that understatement despite the Kirkus star before reserving the book from our public library because I wanted it to be a good source of understanding of the history of society’s treatment of the subject of the female body (in the western experience, at least). It’s light on providing a solid grounding of that history. Instead we’re given a smattering that seems at times disjointed or drawing repeatedly from the same examples.
All that said, as the author says in the preface by the use of the word “we” in referring to her readers, this is not a book intended to be relatable or understanding by all of us. It is intended for women; but not even all women. Just as incomplete or lacking a compelling connectibility as an autobiography of an astronaut trying to convey their lived experience of seeing the earth from space, this book will resonate with a certain reader and likely only them. I’d encourage potential readers to go through the reviews here, particularly those that may come later than the initial raves. Obviously, the book is resonating with some readers and I am glad they found value and connection in the reading.
I’m not sorry for reading this book; I just wish I’d come away from it with a better understanding of “the” female experience rather than “a” female’s experience. I hope other readers find and take more from book than I did.
The “yada, yada”, meh, or “woe is you” or “what makes your life experience so important for me to know about?” percolates up through each chapter like a dark roast of coffee, darkening the clear enjoyment of learning about the history of the female experience, until its acid, bitter and unenjoyable. Some connection to the personal lived experience would have been great, but oh, how self-absorbed the book seems to me. I was reminded of reading Susan Sontag or Joan Didion, but not in the good essayist way.
Further evidence that this is foremost an autobiography, not a history (no matter how ‘hidden’ the book’s subtitle suggests) is the lack of sourcing or elaboration through footnotes or endnotes or even captions for untitled images scattered throughout the book. The author’s purpose seems not to educate or illuminate. This is personal, it seems mostly about coming to terms with a person’s physically, sensually lived experience. We’re told it’s about the awakening to the singularity of the human being not the mind-body duality but that makes it too cerebral again. It’s more a book about the author. Even the Kirkus Review said as much but more politely. I think the phrase might have been something like ‘perhaps too personal’.
I noted that understatement despite the Kirkus star before reserving the book from our public library because I wanted it to be a good source of understanding of the history of society’s treatment of the subject of the female body (in the western experience, at least). It’s light on providing a solid grounding of that history. Instead we’re given a smattering that seems at times disjointed or drawing repeatedly from the same examples.
All that said, as the author says in the preface by the use of the word “we” in referring to her readers, this is not a book intended to be relatable or understanding by all of us. It is intended for women; but not even all women. Just as incomplete or lacking a compelling connectibility as an autobiography of an astronaut trying to convey their lived experience of seeing the earth from space, this book will resonate with a certain reader and likely only them. I’d encourage potential readers to go through the reviews here, particularly those that may come later than the initial raves. Obviously, the book is resonating with some readers and I am glad they found value and connection in the reading.
I’m not sorry for reading this book; I just wish I’d come away from it with a better understanding of “the” female experience rather than “a” female’s experience. I hope other readers find and take more from book than I did.
October 5, 2026
Maglaque is incredibly generous with both her research findings and the details of extremely intimate parts of her personal history. She is a very gifted historian, and often a good writer; I read most of the book with relish and kept finding myself thinking that I would love to have her as a professor. She mixed scholarship, historical artifacts and primary sources, and anecdote to great effect. I imagined it could translate easily into a syllabus, or maybe was devised the other way around. She was serious without being humorless, thoughtful without lapsing into longeurs, and conveyed an enthusiasm for the subject that didn't feel breathless or sentimental.
It was disappointing, then, that in trying to be a combo of academic text, popular history, and memoir, Presence failed to meet genre standards for any of the three. In the first and final chapters, on food and death, Maglaque mixed memoir and history really skillfully – I think they would have made great standalone essays. At most other points, though, the memoir paragraphs felt like awkward interpolations. I might be a post-Enlightenment prude who has been conned into believing that women's erotic lives end with matrescence, but the allusions to the rollicking kinky sex she had after her divorce made me literally cringe. Maybe they would have felt less out of place had the memoir portions been longer and her prose not so restrained. In a similar vein, the content of Presence was dramatic and page-turnery enough to qualify it as popular history, but the voice was academic enough to make the lack of direct citation feel seriously inappropriate. I was kind of scandalized by the uncaptioned figures. By the last third of the book, either she or her editors had lost steam (or I just lost tolerance?). She repeated herself a lot – maybe seven mentions of laundry laid out on hedges to dry in the sun – and I noticed a few copy errors.
Also, prob not Maglaque's decision but I haaaated that it was printed on glossy paper.
It was disappointing, then, that in trying to be a combo of academic text, popular history, and memoir, Presence failed to meet genre standards for any of the three. In the first and final chapters, on food and death, Maglaque mixed memoir and history really skillfully – I think they would have made great standalone essays. At most other points, though, the memoir paragraphs felt like awkward interpolations. I might be a post-Enlightenment prude who has been conned into believing that women's erotic lives end with matrescence, but the allusions to the rollicking kinky sex she had after her divorce made me literally cringe. Maybe they would have felt less out of place had the memoir portions been longer and her prose not so restrained. In a similar vein, the content of Presence was dramatic and page-turnery enough to qualify it as popular history, but the voice was academic enough to make the lack of direct citation feel seriously inappropriate. I was kind of scandalized by the uncaptioned figures. By the last third of the book, either she or her editors had lost steam (or I just lost tolerance?). She repeated herself a lot – maybe seven mentions of laundry laid out on hedges to dry in the sun – and I noticed a few copy errors.
Also, prob not Maglaque's decision but I haaaated that it was printed on glossy paper.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
I am always attracted to books that look at topics I wouldn’t normally read about so when this ARC popped up, I was immediately intrigued (my thanks to NetGalley and Astra Publishing House). It turned out to be an exceptional read.
The author, in her debut book, is on the faculty at the University of Sheffield, England, and offers a fascinating study of women using her own body “as the template.” Drawing on historical, artistic, midwifery journals, legal, scientific and “household guide” sources, we get a bird’s eye view of women’s experiences and self imagineds between 1500 to 1800. This was a period of “profound change” for women and during which men also took over things like births, normally handled by midwives. Another example , in the 16th C it was thought a woman needed to experience organism to conceive by the 18th C it was argued organism didn’t exist.
The book examines birth, abortion, miscarriage, breast feeding, house work and care for the dying. As on French memoirist, Madame de Roland, wrote in the 18th C, about breastfeeding: “In truth, looking at the matter closely, nursing a baby is a course in morals, and I think some women do well not to try it.” Also before the 18th C, sex was non-penetrative, by the end it was penetrative. We get our sexual proclivities from this century. Loved Chapter 8 entitled “A History of Durdgery.” This chapter actually explores women working on textiles and how to keep white linen clean.
There are wonderful paintings and illustrations in the book showing women in various poses and ways of life. This added nicely to historical tale being offered in this book. Highly recommend.
The author, in her debut book, is on the faculty at the University of Sheffield, England, and offers a fascinating study of women using her own body “as the template.” Drawing on historical, artistic, midwifery journals, legal, scientific and “household guide” sources, we get a bird’s eye view of women’s experiences and self imagineds between 1500 to 1800. This was a period of “profound change” for women and during which men also took over things like births, normally handled by midwives. Another example , in the 16th C it was thought a woman needed to experience organism to conceive by the 18th C it was argued organism didn’t exist.
The book examines birth, abortion, miscarriage, breast feeding, house work and care for the dying. As on French memoirist, Madame de Roland, wrote in the 18th C, about breastfeeding: “In truth, looking at the matter closely, nursing a baby is a course in morals, and I think some women do well not to try it.” Also before the 18th C, sex was non-penetrative, by the end it was penetrative. We get our sexual proclivities from this century. Loved Chapter 8 entitled “A History of Durdgery.” This chapter actually explores women working on textiles and how to keep white linen clean.
There are wonderful paintings and illustrations in the book showing women in various poses and ways of life. This added nicely to historical tale being offered in this book. Highly recommend.
November 21, 2025
Starting this review with a quote from this book:
“There was a fundamental distrust of what happened inside the female body; external evidence not required.
Oh how this still rings true, even 500 years later.
There was so much history built into this book from the 1400s to present day. I appreciated the mix of personal anecdotes and historical evidence, but I felt the pacing of the book would’ve benefited from more depth on the personal side. At times it felt like we were jumping from historical quote to historical quote with no context as to why; a way of dumping a ton of data into one chapter.
Chapter 3 was the most intriguing, as Maglaque delves into the history of “unpregnancy” and how people assume society was always against it. That wasn’t always the case, even in the Catholic church who became much more strict on the subject in the late 1500s.
The chapters on sleep and desire were two of my favorites; they were fascinating and relatable and although these are biological forces, the way we approach them has changed so much throughout history.
The epilogue perfectly wrapped the book up, and brought the reason for the research full circle. It was about the risk of being present, the risk of searching for more, the risk of being curious. The word ‘presence’ permeated through the book and it not only referenced the presence of others throughout a woman’s history, but the presence of oneself while experiencing these phenomena.
Thank you to Astra House and NetGalley for the advanced reader copy!!
“There was a fundamental distrust of what happened inside the female body; external evidence not required.
Oh how this still rings true, even 500 years later.
There was so much history built into this book from the 1400s to present day. I appreciated the mix of personal anecdotes and historical evidence, but I felt the pacing of the book would’ve benefited from more depth on the personal side. At times it felt like we were jumping from historical quote to historical quote with no context as to why; a way of dumping a ton of data into one chapter.
Chapter 3 was the most intriguing, as Maglaque delves into the history of “unpregnancy” and how people assume society was always against it. That wasn’t always the case, even in the Catholic church who became much more strict on the subject in the late 1500s.
The chapters on sleep and desire were two of my favorites; they were fascinating and relatable and although these are biological forces, the way we approach them has changed so much throughout history.
The epilogue perfectly wrapped the book up, and brought the reason for the research full circle. It was about the risk of being present, the risk of searching for more, the risk of being curious. The word ‘presence’ permeated through the book and it not only referenced the presence of others throughout a woman’s history, but the presence of oneself while experiencing these phenomena.
Thank you to Astra House and NetGalley for the advanced reader copy!!
June 29, 2026
Presence: A Hidden History of the Female Body by Erin Maglaque is a thoughtful and deeply engaging exploration of women’s bodies, experiences, knowledge, and the ways history has shaped our understanding of femininity and embodiment.
What stands out is the book’s unique approach of blending personal reflection with historical inquiry. By connecting lived experiences with the premodern past, Maglaque invites readers to reconsider familiar ideas about the body, care, desire, and the roles women have played throughout history.
The book offers a rich and insightful perspective for readers interested in women’s history, feminism, cultural studies, and the relationship between the body and identity. Its thoughtful examination of topics often overlooked creates a powerful and meaningful conversation about how we understand human experience.
A compelling read for anyone interested in history, gender, embodiment, and the evolving stories of women’s lives.
What stands out is the book’s unique approach of blending personal reflection with historical inquiry. By connecting lived experiences with the premodern past, Maglaque invites readers to reconsider familiar ideas about the body, care, desire, and the roles women have played throughout history.
The book offers a rich and insightful perspective for readers interested in women’s history, feminism, cultural studies, and the relationship between the body and identity. Its thoughtful examination of topics often overlooked creates a powerful and meaningful conversation about how we understand human experience.
A compelling read for anyone interested in history, gender, embodiment, and the evolving stories of women’s lives.
May 21, 2026
Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for this eArc in exchange for an honest review.
Non fiction is definitely not my bread and butter but women’s history definitely is.
While at times the info-dump was really strong the author did a lot of research that made me want to look further into each source she credited to become more learned.
I would recommend this as a book to have and pick up and put down rather then read all the way through because of the sheer amount of references that don’t always follow a nice “story” line
Non fiction is definitely not my bread and butter but women’s history definitely is.
While at times the info-dump was really strong the author did a lot of research that made me want to look further into each source she credited to become more learned.
I would recommend this as a book to have and pick up and put down rather then read all the way through because of the sheer amount of references that don’t always follow a nice “story” line
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Very interesting history of women’s bodies presented in an accessible way. This is an important addition to feminist non-fiction. The author seamlessly weaves in her own experiences with her body. It is dense with history, so don’t try to read it all in one sitting. It is totally worth the read!
Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!
Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!
Want to Read
June 25, 2026namara: I’ve been savoring Erin Maglaque’s book “Presence: A Hidden History of the Female Body,” which came out this week. She’s a really good historian, and a terrific stylist who writes with vivid, pointillistic detail about breast-feeding, infant care, sleeping, sex and pregnancy, birth—all that stuff that doesn’t usually make it into the historical record
May 23, 2026
Well written book for a targeted audience of women. It is written by a historian, a good one, but it is challenging for a male readers.
June 21, 2026
Interesting. Some topics were approached a bit awkwardly.
July 17, 2026
Breaking my duck of never rating or writing a review on Goodreads for this - I read this all in one evening and it is remarkable in so many ways.
August 3, 2026
4.5 beautiful & striking
A better description would be a hidden western history of the female body
A better description would be a hidden western history of the female body
August 14, 2026
Amazing book that sits between academic study and personal experience.
September 9, 2026
Loved the long obscured history of women’s intimate secrets but was less interested in personal details of author’s life.
July 20, 2026
Who knew the history of white linens and orgasms could be in the same book.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews