What did some of the male titans of early modern literature have in common with housewives? According to Katie Kadue, a shared preoccupation with the tedious and not always successful work of maintaining life. In an elegantly organized and beautifully written book of five chapters plus an introduction and conclusion, Kadue ranges confidently across time, terrain, and language, moving from Rabelais (in the mid-sixteenth century) to Milton in the mid- and late seventeenth century and concluding with a discussion of two poems by women, one eighteenth century and one twenty-first century. Balancing a sharp eye for detail against a robust overarching argument, she offers both new insights into familiar authors and works and a new rubric one might use to discuss other texts and authors as well. As she puts it at one point, she reads monumental works “in a minor key” (152). The result is a book that rewards...
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