At Last! Gasp!
The paperback of Julie Peakman’s
Mighty Lewd Books
Published by Palgrave Macmillan October 2012.
Now considered a classic amongst scholars of eighteenth
century and the history of pornography, Mighty Lewd Books 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, it looks at sex as seen in culture, religion and medicine
throughout the long eighteenth-century.
A new form of flagellation pornography burst to the fore in
the 1770s when erotic fiction became littered with whipping scenarios. Prior to
this, English erotica had included a particular style of bawdy material marked
by euphemisms and double entendres. 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 underworld of booksellers and distributors are explored through trial
records and witness depositions. This book also 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. 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.
About the Author: Julie Peakman is a
historian, author and broadcaster who is internationally renowned for her work
on the history of sexuality. Her books include Lascivious Bodies: A Sexual
History of the Eighteenth Century; a six-volume edition of A Cultural
History of Sexuality and the edited collection Sexual
Perversion 1670–1890. Since its first publication her ground-breaking book Mighty
Lewd Books has become essential reading for anyone interested in
eighteenth century erotica and the history of sexuality. She lives in London and
on the Greek island of Leros.
Reviews:
‘This . . . fascinating and intelligent survey shows
how an explosion of obscene literature
immediately followed the wild success of pioneering (but
largely non-pornographic) fictions by Defoe, Swift, Richardson and their
imitators . . . Porn’s strongest selling points were that it was sexy,
unrespectable and forbidden, of course, but Julie Peakman shows that it had
other attributes, not always connected directly with sex. It popularised new
scientific ideas in botany, anatomy and electricity. It stoked the fires of
anti-Catholicism with its lecherous monks and nuns, and it encompassed radical
ideas in politics.’
— Financial Times
‘ . . . fascinating book . . . well-written and researched .
. . this book offers intriguing new insights into a hidden area of gender
history, challenging many preconceptions about the c.18th century.’— BBC
History Magazine
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