SEX & SEXUALITY, 1640-1940

Literary, Medical and Sociological Perspectives

Parts 3 and 4: Erotica, 1650-1900, from the Private Case Collection at the British Library, London

Publisher's Note - Part 3

Parts 3 and 4 comprise erotic and pornographic literature from the Private Case Collection at the British Library, London. The material is divided chronologically, Part 3 covering 1657-1889 and Part 4 1890-1908.

Part 1 covers sources from the Bodleian Library, Oxford and the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, London, and is divided into sections covering sexual habits, advice books, moral guidance, medical works, literary treatments, prostitution and the sociology of sex. Part 2 from the Bodleian Library, Oxford, covers romantic friendships and lesbian relationships in literature and history.

The Private Case Collection at the British Library has only recently been open to researchers. As our editor, Brad Mudge, Professor in the Department of English at the University of Colorado at Denver notes, “It is one of the largest and most representative collections of erotic and pornographic literature in the world.” It consists of two major bequests, one by H Spencer Ashbee, the famous nineteenth century erotic bibliographer, in 1900 and the other by C R Dawes in 1964. Included in the collection are almost two thousand erotic publications. They range over four centuries and appear in French, German, Italian and Latin as well as in English.

Exactly when “pornography” began is a matter of scholarly debate. Although the Greeks and Romans produced sexually explicit artifacts, including frescoes, vases, and statues, and although the works of Martial, Catullus, Juvenal, and Suetonius occasionally employ obscene satire, these items rarely resemble “pornography” in the modern sense of the word: graphic depictions of sexual activity designed specifically for the arousal of the audience. Nor would certain works by Chaucer, Boccaccio, and Marguerite of Navarre qualify. The Italian writer Pietro Aretino, famous for his whore dialogues, is generally considered the founding father of modern pornography, but even his works are dramatically different from their modern descendents. One of the most famous writers of obscene literature in seventeenth century England was John Wilmot, second Earl of Rochester (1647-80). Also notorious for his libertinism, Rochester wrote poetry that was intended solely for the small aristocratic circle in which he moved and not for the general public.

By the eighteenth century, however, there was an explosion of fiction and pictorial art that could be called “pornographic.” One of the most famous works is John Cleland’s Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure or Fanny Hill (1749), a book which was frequently reprinted and widely translated but not legally available in the USA until the 1960’s. By the end of the century the Marquis de Sade is dramatizing the connection between sex and violence and artists such as Thomas Rowlandson are producing increasing numbers of lewd prints.

Walter Kendrick insists in The Secret Museum (1987), the nineteenth century invented the word “pornography,” and soon after “the past was scoured to locate those books and pictures that had been ‘pornographic’ all along without anyone knowing it”. It is possible, Kendrick argues, that “pornography” will in the future come to mean something quite different from what it does today.

What exactly does the word “pornography” mean? Although a contemporary dictionary might offer something along the lines of “Written, graphic or other forms of communication intended to excite lascivious feelings,” in the nineteenth century the word also meant “a description of prostitutes or prostitution, as a matter of public hygiene” or as “a description of the life, manners, etc of prostitutes and their patrons: hence, the expression or suggestion of obscene or unchaste subjects in literature or art”. In the eighteenth century, the word did not exist at all! Thanks to H Spencer Ashbee, one of the most famous of the nineteenth-century bibliophiles, we have a detailed record of many of the obscene works from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Two of Ashbee’s bibliographies of erotic works are included in Part 3, Index Librorum Prohibitorum (1877) and Catena Librorum Tacendorum (1885). They were published under his pseudonym of Pisanus Fraxi, were limited to 250 copies per edition and privately distributed as they were aimed at a niche market – the very rich. Ashbee is also believed to have written the erotic autobiography My Secret Life (1890), all eleven volumes of which are included in Part 4. Ashbee’s thoughts on the value of “pornography” were evidently mixed. In the “Preliminary Remarks” of Catena Librorum Tacendorum (1885) he felt compelled to declare, “Better were it that such literature did not exist. I consider it pernicious and hurtful to the immature but at the same time I hold that, in certain circumstances, its study is necessary, if not beneficial.”

Part 3 of our publication from the Private Case Collection contains material from 1657-1889. It includes a wide range of erotic material from “pseudo-medical manuals” and “pseudo-travelogues” to novels, magazines, poems and songs, many of them vividly and explicitly illustrated.

Several “pseudo-medical manuals” are included: Gonosologium Novum (1709) by John Marten, Treatise on the Use of Flogging in Venereal Affairs (1718) and Treatise on Hermaphrodites (1718), both published by Edmund Curll, An Essay on Onanism (1772) by M Tissot, La Masturbomanie (1830), The Secret Companion, A Medical Work on Onanism and Self-Pollution (1845) by R J Brodie, and On the use of Night-Caps (1845) published by William Dugdale.

“Pseudo-travelogues” are also included: Erotopolis. The Present state of Betty-Land (1684) by Charles Cotton, A New Description of Merryland (1741) together with A Short Description of Roads which lead to that Delightful Country called Merryland (1743) published by Edmund Curll.
Erotic adventures of both sexes are well covered: The History of Colonel Francis Charteris (1730), Histoire de Dom B – The Life and Adventures of Father Silas (1742), the infamous Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (1749) and The Memoirs of a Coxcomb (1885 edition) both by John Cleland, Les Amours de Charlot et Toinette (1789), Amours, Intrigues and Adventures of a Musical Student (1860) and The Adventures of a Schoolboy (1866) by James Reddie, both published by William Dugdale, Intrigues and Confession of a Ballet Girl (1870), The Romance of Lust or, Early Experiences (1873-76), The Amatory Experiences of a Surgeon (1881) by James Reddie and Venus in India, or Love Adventures in Hindustan (1889) published in Amsterdam.

To enable scholars to compare and contrast cultures, examples of foreign erotic literature are also included; Ragionamenti (1660) and La Puttana Errante (1660) by Pietro Aretino, Satyra Sotadica by Nicolas Chorier (1665), Lescole des Filles (1668) by Michel Millot, Therese Philosophe (1748) by Jean-Baptiste Argens, La Pucelle D’Orleans (1761) by Voltaire, Histoire de Juliette (1794, 1797) and Justine (1794) both by the Marquis de Sade and Tableaux Vivants (1888) published by Leonard Smithers. We have also included poetry with translations from the Roman writer Martial.

In the nineteenth century there seemed to be a proliferation of literature relating to flagellation, as many of the items describe adventures and experiences relating to this subject: The Exhibition of Female Flagellants (1860), The New Ladies’ Tickler (1866) both published by William Dugdale, The Merry Order of St Bridget (1868), the well-known Romance of Chastisement by George Stock (1870), with its sequel the Quintessence of Birch Discipline (1883) and Lady Bumtickler’s Revels (1872) all published by J C Hotten. Also included are publications by Edward Avery such as Experiences of Flagellation (1885) and The Whippingham Papers (1888).

Other sexual practices besides flagellation are described in the works included in this part: auto erotic asphyxiation practised by prostitutes with their clients, masturbation, sodomy, tribadism, under age sex, incest. There is also information on hermaphrodites, contraception techniques from the mid nineteenth century, reports on trials for adultery, and an account of a woman living as a man and marrying another woman. Harris’s List of Covent Garden Ladies (1788-1790 and 1793) lists the prostitutes available in London with an account of their various charms!

The erotic magazines Le Bon Ton (1792-1795), The Exquisite (1842-1844), The Cremorne A Magazine of Wit (1851) and The Boudoir A Magazine of Scandal (1883) have a wide variety of contents including serialised erotic adventures, descriptions of prostitution in France and of sexual practices, poems, songs, anecdotes, stories about exotic historical figures and even the sexual exploits of eunuchs in Turkey.

Other types of literature are included besides prose: erotic verse, including The Ladies Choice (1702), The Fifteen Plagues of a Maiden-Head (1707), Selected Poetical Works of the Earls of Rochester, Roscomon and Dorset (1757/1784), The Noble Cuckolds; or, The Pleasures of a Single Life (1772), Select Poems on Several Occasions (1824), An Essay on Woman (1871) by John Wilkes. A selection of bawdy songs can also be found: The Bacchanalian Magazine (1793), Songs by Captain Morris (1800), The Rambler’s Flash Songster (1863).

Thanks are due to Brad Mudge, Professor of English at University of Colorado at Denver for all his help and guidance in the selection of the material for this collection and for his dedicated work in the Private Case Reading Room at the British Library!

Sex and Sexuality Part 3 will allow scholars of literature, history, art, medicine and sexuality to compare and contrast “pornographic” and erotic material from four different centuries and cultures and will prove an invaluable addition to any research library.

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