Voluntary servitude and the erotics of friendship

"Focusing primarily on three early modern French authors, this book explores the interdependent erotics and politics of "voluntary servitude" in classical antiquity and the early modern period. These authors - Etienne de La Boetie, Michel de Montaigne and Marie de Gournay - pursue related inquiries into voluntary servitude and self-control in marriage, friendship, pederasty and politics, often through their encounters with classical texts by Plato, Xenophon and Plutarch."--Jacket.