Lascivious Bodies: A sexual history of the eighteenth century - Hardcover

Peakman, Julie

3.98

80 ratings by Goodreads

9781843541561: Lascivious Bodies: A sexual history of the eighteenth century

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1843541564 ISBN 13: 9781843541561

Publisher: Atlantic Books, 2004

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The eighteenth century saw a revolution in ordinary British people's sex lives. In a time of social flux, the sheer array of sexual experimentation during this period led to the birth of sexuality as we know it today. From Florentine lesbian nuns to French cattle buggers Lascivious Bodies examines all sorts of sex, in all sorts of places, with all sorts of people. Drawing upon vivid firsthand material and private letters, Julie Peakman depicts the libertine men and flighty courtesans of the era, including such personalities as James Boswell, Casanova, Peg Plunkett, Harriette Wilson and Julia Johnstone. She also explores heterosexual behaviour in courtship, marriage, adultery, divorce and prostitution; more curious or abnormal activities, such as footfetishism, flagellation, and necrophilia; as well as male and female homosexuality and cross-dressing. Lascivious Bodies looks set to become the standard account of a period of multifarious sexual pleasures, and the extraordinary attitudes they engendered - a time that has shaped how we think about sex today.

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Product Description:

Sex

Review:

"'A jolly and Informative book, nicely produced... soundly researched and spiced with lurid details. Her descriptions bring a period of unbridled sexual appetite roaring to life.' Miranda Seymour, Sunday Times; 'Oh my. Don't I get the julcy jobs?... Every [other] sexual diversion is on display, every taboo and curlosity... Peakman is an energetic researcher... Lascivious Bodies makes today's swingers look very tame.' Edwina Currie, New Statesman"

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