A singular past / Judith M. Bennett and Amy M. Froide -- Singlewomen in medieval and early modern Europe: the demographic perspective / Maryanne Kowaleski -- "It is not good that [wo]man should be alone": elite responses to singlewomen in high medieval Paris / Sharon Farmer -- Single by law and custom / Susan Mosher Stuard -- Sex and the singlewoman / Ruth Mazo Karras -- Transforming maidens: singlewomen's stories in Marie de France's Lais and later French courtly narratives / Roberta L. Krueger -- Having her own smoke: employment and independence for singlewomen in Germany, 1400-1750 / Merry E. Wiesner -- Singlewomen in early modern Venice: Communities and opportunities / Monica Chojnacka -- Marital status as a category of difference: singlewomen and widows in early modern England / Amy M. Froide -- The Sapphic strain: English lesbians in the long eighteenth century / Margaret R. Hunt -- Singular politics: the rise of the British nation and the production of the old maid / Susan S. Lanser