Book excerpt: Cover -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Contents -- List of Illustrations -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: Absent Husbands and Unpartnered Wivesin Early Modern England -- 1. Housekeeping and Forlorn Travel in Arden of Faversham -- 2. The Doorstep and the Exchange in A Warning for Fair Women -- 3. One Man's Calling in A Woman Killed with Kindness -- 4. Women, Work, and Windows in Women Beware Women -- 5. The East India Company and the Domestic Economy in The Launchingof the Mary, or The Seaman's Honest Wife -- Epilogue: John and Anne Donneand the Culture of Business -- Notes