Medieval Virginities. Edited by Anke Bernau, Ruth Evans, and Sarah Salih. Toronto and Buffalo: University of Toronto Press, 2003. Pp. xiv + 296; 9 illustrations. $50.

As the editors of this collection of articles point out in their "Introduction," medieval virginity studies have in the last few years developed into "a mini-discipline" (p. 1), with a substantial body of publications. One of the notable features of this anthology is its range of content, which, as its title suggests, moves beyond the central focus of this minidiscipline, vowed female virginity, to explore other forms and functions of virginity, including male virginity, the role of female virginity in the secular world, and the use of virginity as a metaphor in a variety of medieval discourses. Another is the range of its critical approaches: "the critical languages used include feminist, queer, psychoanalytic, poststructuralist and postcolonial; the plurality of voices mimics the plurality of virginities" (p. 2).

Bella Millett
University of Southampton