MIGHTY LEWD BOOKS The Development of Pornography in Eighteenth-Century England

Hardcover. 1st US edn. The author provides a radical new approach to the study of sexuality in an in-depth investigation of the development of pornography. Through the examination of more than 500 pieces of British erotica, the book looks at sex as seen in culture, religion and medicine throughout the long 18th century, when erotic poems, salacious prints and obscene satires were sold in London coffee-shops, in taverns, on street corners and in various book-shops along the Strand and in Covent Garden. The book explores popular images in erotica; female flagellants whipping their submissive charges; depraved monks corrupting innocent nuns; libertine rascals seducing young virgins; and rakes carousing with their whores. It also analyses the underworld of booksellers and distributors through trial records and witness depositions. Using the evidence of erotica, and taking a feminist approach within a framework of gender history, this book challenges the traditional view that women were generally seen as sexually passive. With 39 Illus., Appendix, Notes, Bibliog. and Index. 263pp. 8vo. h/back. F. in F. dw.