'The most impressive aspect of this book is the depth of Linton's engagement with the historical materials. She also deserves a great deal of credit for bringing our attention to long neglected figures such as William Warner … Linton's use of primary historical sources is dizzyingly extensive in certain parts of this book, and her ability to see analogies and relationships between fiction and her historical sources is nothing short of brilliant.' Kritikon Litterarum

• Acknowledgments; Introduction; 1. Love's laborers: the busy heroes of romance and empire; 2. Sea-knights and royal virgins: American gold and its discontents in lodge's A Margarite of America (1596); 3. Jack of Newbery and Drake in California: domestic and colonial narratives of English cloth and manhood; 4. Eros and science: the discourses of magical consumerism; 5. Gender, savagery, tobacco: marketplaces for consumption; 6. Inconstancy: coming to Indians through Troilus and Cressida; 7. The Tempest, 'rape', the art and smart of Virginian husbandry; Coda: the masks of Pocahontas; Notes; Works cited; Index.