When Flesh Becomes Word
An Anthology of Early Eighteenth-Century Libertine Literature
ISBN13: 9780195161885ISBN10: 0195161882
Paperback,
368 pages
Also available:
Hardback
Mar 2004,
In Stock
Price:
$50.00 (04)Description
When Flesh Becomes Word collects nine different examples of British libertine literature that appeared before 1750. Three of these--The School of Venus (1680), Venus in the Cloister (1725), and A Dialogue Between a Married Lady and a Maid (1740)--are famous "whore dialogues," dramatic conversations between an older, experienced woman and a younger, inexperienced maid. Previously unavailable in an affordable edition, these dialogues combine sex education, medical folklore, and erotic literature in a decidedly proto-pornographic form. This edition presents other important examples of libertine literature, including bawdy poetry, a salacious medical treatise, an irreverent travelogue, and a criminal biography. The combination of both popular and influential texts presented in this edition provides an accessible introduction to the variety of material available to eighteenth-century readers before the publication of John Cleland's Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure in 1749.Reviews
"When Flesh Becomes Word brings together a fascinting collection of material in which sexual titilation was fused with various genres of fact and fiction."--Elizabeth J. Scott-Baumann, Times Literary Supplement
"Given the rarity and yet the unacknowledged importance of these kinds of work, Mudge provides a significant service for understanding both the origins of the novel and the special character of pornography. Highly recommended."--Library Journal
Product Details
368 pages; 29 halftones & 5 line illus.; 6-1/8 x 9-1/4; ISBN13: 978-0-19-516188-5ISBN10: 0-19-516188-2About the Author(s)
Bradford K. Mudge is Professor of English at the University of Colorado at Denver. He is the author of The Whore's Story: Women, Pornography, and the British Novel, 1684-1830 (Oxford, 2000).
