Erotic literature

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Erotic literature comprises fictional and factual stories and accounts of eros (passionate, romantic or sexual relationships) intended to arouse similar feelings in readers.^[1] This contrasts erotica, which focuses more specifically on sexual feelings. Other common elements are satire and social criticism. Much erotic literature features erotic art, illustrating the text.

Although cultural disapproval of erotic literature has always existed, its circulation was not seen as a major problem before the invention of printing, as the costs of producing individual manuscripts limited distribution to a very small group of wealthy and literate readers. The invention of printing, in the 15th century, brought with it both a greater market and increasing restrictions, including censorship and legal restraints on publication on the grounds of obscenity.^[2] Because of this, much of the production of this type of material became clandestine.^[3]

Erotic verse

Early periods

The oldest located love poem is Istanbul 2461,^[4] an erotic monologue written by a female speaker directed to king Shu-Sin.^[5][6]

In ancient Sumer, a whole

Haft Peykar (Persian: هفت پیکر) also known as Bahramnameh (بهرام‌نامه, The Book of Bahram) is a romantic epic by the Persian poet Nizami Ganjavi written in 1197. This poem is a part of the Nizami's Khamsa. The original title Haft Peykar can be translated literally as "seven portraits" with the figurative meaning of "seven beauties." The poem is a masterpiece of erotic literature, but it is also a profoundly moralistic work.^[12]

During the Renaissance period, many poems were not written for publication; instead, they were merely circulated in manuscript form among a relatively limited readership. This was the original method of circulation for the

A famous collection of four erotic poems, was published in England in 1763, called An Essay on Woman. This included the title piece, an obscene parody of Alexander Pope's "An Essay on Man"; "Veni Creator: or, The Maid's Prayer", which is original; the "Universal Prayer", an obscene parody of Pope's poem of the same name, and "The Dying Lover to his Prick", which parodies "A Dying Christian to his Soul" by Pope. These poems have been attributed to John Wilkes and/or Thomas Potter and receive the distinction of being the only works of erotic literature ever read out loud and in their entirety in the House of Lords—before being declared obscene and blasphemous by that body and the supposed author, Wilkes, declared an outlaw.^[18]

Robert Burns worked to collect and preserve Scottish folk songs, sometimes revising, expanding, and adapting them. One of the better known of these collections is The Merry Muses of Caledonia (the title is not by Burns), a collection of bawdy lyrics that were popular in the music halls of Scotland as late as the 20th century.

19th century

One of the 19th century's foremost poets—Algernon Charles Swinburne—devoted much of his considerable talent to erotic verse, producing, inter alia, twelve eclogues on flagellation titled The Flogging Block "by Rufus Rodworthy, annotated by Barebum Birchingly";^[19] more was published anonymously in The Whippingham Papers (c. 1888).^[20] Another notorious anonymous 19th-century poem on the same subject is The Rodiad, ascribed (seemingly falsely and in jest^[21]) to George Colman the Younger.^[22] John Camden Hotten even wrote a pornographic comic opera, Lady Bumtickler's Revels, on the theme of flagellation in 1872.^[23]

Although D. H. Lawrence could be regarded as a writer of love poems, he usually dealt in the less romantic aspects of love such as sexual frustration or the sex act itself. Ezra Pound, in his Literary Essays, complained of Lawrence's interest in his own "disagreeable sensations" but praised him for his "low-life narrative". This is a reference to Lawrence's dialect poems akin to the Scots poems of Robert Burns, in which he reproduced the language and concerns of the people of Nottinghamshire from his youth. He called one collection of poems Pansies partly for the simple ephemeral nature of the verse but also a pun on the French word panser, to dress or bandage a wound. "The Noble Englishman" and "Don't Look at Me" were removed from the official edition of Pansies on the grounds of obscenity; Lawrence felt wounded by this.^{[citation needed]}

From the age of 17,

Italian Una Chi distinguished herself among other publications for coldly analytical prose and for the crudeness of the stories.

Erotic fiction

Erotic fiction is fiction that portrays sex or sexual themes, generally in a more literary or serious way than the fiction seen in pornographic magazines. It sometimes includes elements of satire or social criticism. Such works have frequently been banned by the government or religious authorities. Non-fictional works that portray sex or sexual themes may contain fictional elements. Calling an erotic book 'a memoir' is a literary device that is common in this genre. For reasons similar to those that make pseudonyms both commonplace and often deviously set up, the boundary between fiction and non-fiction is broad.

Erotic fiction has been credited in large part for the sexual awakening and liberation of women in the 20th and 21st centuries.^{[citation needed]}

History of western erotic fiction

Ancient, medieval, and early modern periods

From the medieval period, there is the

Pasolini) which features tales of lechery by monks and the seduction of nuns from convents. This book was banned in many countries. Even five centuries after publication, copies were seized and destroyed by the authorities in the US and the UK. For instance, between 1954 and 1958 eight orders for destruction of the book were made by English magistrates.^[29]

From the 15th century, another classic of Italian erotica is a series of bawdy folk tales called the Facetiae by

Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini, became Pope Pius II. It is one of the earliest examples of an epistolary novel, full of erotic imagery. The first printed edition was published by Ulrich Zel in Cologne between 1467 and 1470.^[30]

The 16th century was notable for the

Heptameron of Marguerite de Navarre (1558), inspired by Boccaccio's Decameron and the notorious I Modi which married erotic drawings, depicting postures assumed in sexual intercourse, by Giulio Romano, with obscene sonnets by Pietro Aretino.^[31]

Aretino also wrote the celebrated

Latin entitled Aloisiae Sigaeae, Toletanae, Satyra sotadica de arcanis Amoris et Veneris. This manuscript claimed that it was originally written in Spanish by Luisa Sigea de Velasco, an erudite poet and maid of honor at the court of Lisbon and was then translated into Latin by Jean or Johannes Meursius. The attribution to Sigea and Meursius was a lie; the true author was Nicolas Chorier

.

A unique work of this time is

Restoration rake, John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester in which Bolloxinion, King of Sodom, authorises "that buggery may be used O'er all the land, so cunt be not abused", which order, though appealing to soldiery, has deleterious effects generally, leading the court physician to counsel: "Fuck women, and let Bugg'ry be no more".^[46]

18th century

An early pioneer of the publication of erotic works in England was Edmund Curll (1675–1747), who published many of the Merryland books. These were an English genre of erotic fiction in which the female body (and sometimes the male) was described in terms of a landscape.^[47] The earliest work in this genre seems to be Erotopolis: The Present State of Bettyland (1684) probably by Charles Cotton. This was included, in abbreviated form, in The Potent Ally: or Succours from Merryland (1741). Other works include A New Description of Merryland. Containing a Topographical, Geographical and Natural History of that Country (1740) by Thomas Stretzer, Merryland Displayed (1741) and set of maps entitled A Compleat Set of Charts of the Coasts of Merryland (1745). The last book in this genre appears to be a parody of Laurence Sterne's A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy (1768) entitled La souricière. The Mousetrap. A Facetious and Sentimental Excursion through part of Austrian Flanders and France (1794) by "Timothy Touchit".^[47]

The rise of the novel in 18th-century England provided a new medium for erotica. One of the most famous in this genre was Fanny Hill (1748) by John Cleland. This book set a standard in literary smut and was often adapted for the cinema in the 20th century. Peter Fryer suggests that Fanny Hill was a high point in British erotica, at least in the eighteenth century, in a way that mainstream literature around it had also reached a peak at that time, with writers like Defoe, Richardson and Fielding all having made important and lasting contributions to literature in its first half. After 1750, he suggests, when the Romantic period began, the quality of mainstream writing and of smut declined in tandem. Writes Fryer: "sex was driven out of the English novel in the latter half of the eighteenth century. The castration of imaginative English literature made the clandestine literature of sex the most poverty stricken and boring in Europe".^[48]

French writers kept their stride. One genre, which vies in oddness with the English "Merryland" productions, was inspired by the newly translated

vaginas to give an account of their intimate sexual histories.^[49]

Other works of French erotica from this period include

Thérèse Philosophe (1748) by Jean-Baptiste de Boyer, Marquis d'Argens which describes a girl's initiation into the secrets of both philosophy and sex;^[50] The Lifted Curtain or Laura's Education, about a young girl's sexual initiation by her father, written by the French revolutionary politician Comte de Mirabeau; and Les Liaisons dangereuses (Dangerous Liaisons) by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos

, first published in 1782.

In the late 18th century, such works as

sado-masochism and influenced later erotic accounts of sadism and masochism in fiction

. De Sade (as did the later writer Sacher-Masoch) lent his name to the sexual acts which he describes in his work.

19th century

In the Victorian period, the quality of erotic fiction was much below that of the previous century—it was largely written by 'hacks'^[

public school, where flagellation was routinely used as a punishment.^[51]

These clandestine works were often anonymous or written under a pseudonym, and sometimes undated, thus definite information about them often proves elusive.

English erotic novels from this period include The Lustful Turk (1828); The Romance of Lust (1873); The Convent School, or Early Experiences of A Young Flagellant (1876) by Rosa Coote [pseud.]; The Mysteries of Verbena House, or, Miss Bellasis Birched for Thieving (1882) by Etonensis [pseud.], actually by George Augustus Sala and James Campbell Reddie; The Autobiography of a Flea (1887); Venus in India (1889) by 'Captain Charles Devereaux';^[52][53][54] Flossie, a Venus of Fifteen: By one who knew this Charming Goddess and worshipped at her shrine (1897).^[55] A novel called Beatrice, once marketed as another classic of Victorian erotica from the pen of the ubiquitous "Anon", now appears to be a very clever 20th-century pastiche of Victorian pornography. It first appeared in 1982 and was written by one Gordon Grimley, a sometime managing director of Penthouse International.^[56]

Clandestine erotic periodicals of this age include The Pearl, The Oyster and The Boudoir, collections of erotic tales, rhymes, songs and parodies published in London between 1879 and 1883.

The centre of the trade in such material in England at this period was Holywell Street, off the Strand, London. An important publisher of erotic material in the early 19th century was George Cannon (1789–1854), followed in mid-century by William Dugdale (1800–1868) and John Camden Hotten (1832–1873).^[57]

An evaluation of 19th-century (pre-1885) and earlier underground erotica, from the author's own private archive, is provided by Victorian writer Henry Spencer Ashbee, using the pseudonym "Pisanus Fraxi", in his bibliographical trilogy Index Librorum Prohibitorum (1877), Centuria Librorum Absconditorum (1879) and Catena Librorum Tacendorum (1885). His plot summaries of the works he discusses in these privately printed volumes are themselves a contribution to the genre. Originally of very limited circulation, changing attitudes have led to his work now being widely available.^[58][59]

Notable European works of erotica at this time were

Gamiani, or Two Nights of Excess (1833) by Frenchman Alfred de Musset and Venus in Furs (1870) by the Austrian author Leopold von Sacher-Masoch.^[60][61] The latter erotic novella brought the attention of the world to the phenomenon of masochism

, named after the author.

Toward the end of the 19th century, a more "cultured" form of erotica began to appear by poets such as

Les chansons de Bilitis

(1894) (a celebration of lesbianism and sexual awakening).

Pioneering works of

transvestite duo of Boulton and Park as characters,^[63] and Teleny, or The Reverse of the Medal (1893).^[64][65][66]

Two important publishers of erotic fiction at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th were

Raped on the Railway: a True Story of a Lady who was first ravished and then flagellated on the Scotch Express (1894)^{[69][70][71][72]} and The Memoirs of Dolly Morton (1899) set on a slave-plantation in the Southern States of America.^[73][74][75]

20th century

20th-century erotic fiction includes such classics of the genre as:

Pauline Réage; Helen and Desire (1954) and Thongs (1955) by Alexander Trocchi; Ada, or Ardor (1969) by Vladimir Nabokov; Journal (1966), Delta of Venus (1978)^[85] and Little Birds (1979) by Anaïs Nin^[86] and The Bicycle Rider (1985) by Guy Davenport and Lila Says

(1999) by an anonymous author.

A study found that the most popular of the Armed Services Editions paperbacks distributed to American soldiers during World War II "are novels that deal frankly with sexual relations (regardless of tone, literary merit and point of view, no matter whether the book is serious or humorous, romantically exciting or drably pedestrian)".^[87]

Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita is usually described as an erotic novel, but in the view of some it is a literary drama with elements of eroticism.^{[citation needed]} Like Nabokov's Lolita, Johannes Linnankoski's The Song of the Blood-Red Flower is also often described as erotic novel, only a little explicit and cleverly cloaked in gentler romance.^[88]

Lolita and The Story of O were published by

Gerald Berners, the 14th Lord Berners, under the pseudonym "Adela Quebec", published and distributed privately in 1932.^[89]

Another trend in the twentieth century was the rise of the

sexploitation format as the lesbian books.^[90]

Asian erotic fiction

Chinese literature has a rich catalogue of erotic novels that were published during the mid-Ming to early-Qing dynasties. Some well-known erotic novels with explicit sexuality during this period include Ruyijun zhuan (The Lord of Perfect Satisfaction), The Embroidered Couch, Su'e pian, Langshi, Chipozi zhuan, Zhulin yeshi, and The Carnal Prayer Mat. The critic Charles Stone has argued that pornographic technique is the "union of banality, obscenity, and repetition", and contains just the "rudiments" of plot, style, and characterization, while anything that is not sexually stimulating is avoided. If this is the case, he concluded, then The Lord of Perfect Satisfaction is the "fountainhead of Chinese erotica", but not pornography.^[91] The novel Jin Ping Mei (or The Plum in the Golden Vase), written by an author who used only a pseudonym (as his real name is unknown), is generally regarded as the greatest of all Chinese erotic novels. Its literary status is unparalleled among erotic fiction and it has been described by critic Stephen Marche in the Los Angeles Review of Books as "one of the world's great novels, if not simply the greatest."^[92]

There is also a tradition of erotic fiction in Japan. Jun'ichirō Tanizaki often touches on erotic themes in his novels, eg. obsession in Naomi, lesbianism in Quicksand or sexuality in The Key. Some portion of this is doujinshi, or independent comics, which are often fan fiction. The sharebon (洒落本) was a pre-modern Japanese literary genre. Plots revolved around humor and entertainment at the pleasure quarters. It is a subgenre of gesaku.

Contemporary erotic fiction

In the 21st century, a number of female authors, including Alison Tyler, Rachel Kramer Bussel, and Carol Queen, rose to prominence. Mitzi Szereto is an editor and author who said she wants to see the term erotica removed from novels and anthologies that include depictions of sexual activities. Other authors celebrate the term but also question why literature featuring sexual activity should be considered outside literary fiction.

The debate was rekindled in 2012 by the release of the 50 Shades of Grey trilogy written by E. L. James. The success of her erotica for every woman, dubbed 'mommyporn', gave rise to satires like Fifty Shames of Earl Grey by 'Fanny Merkin' (real name Andrew Shaffer), a book of essays called Fifty Writers on Fifty Shades (ed. Lori Perkins) and editors of erotic imprints re-evaluating the content and presentation of the genre.^[93]

One development in contemporary erotica is the knowledge that many women, and not just men, are aroused by it. This is regardless of whether it is traditional pornography or tailor-made

subgenre of fantasy fiction and utilizes erotica in a fantasy setting. These stories can essentially cover any of the other subgenres of fantasy, such as high fantasy, contemporary fantasy, or even historical fantasy. The extents of the genre to break existing conventions and limits in subject matter have managed to shock popular audiences, with genres such as monster erotica

emerging with the ease of digital publishing.

Erotic fantasy fiction has similarities to

non-canon relationships, such as slash (homoerotic) fan fiction. Fan fiction and its Japanese counterpart, doujinshi, account for an enormous proportion of all erotica written today.^{[citation needed}

]

Internet erotic fiction

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The Internet and digital revolution in erotic depiction has changed the forms of representing scenes of a sexual nature.

Erotica was present on the Internet from its earliest days, as seen from rec.arts.erotica on

non-binary

authors, it is a common practice to adopt a feminine or masculine alter-ego, although a writer may use their own given name.

Student erotica

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (February 2020)

In the 21st century, a new

American universities was started.^[94]

The following is a partial list of publications:

• The Moderator – Bard College^[95][96]
• Virgin Mawrtyr – Bryn Mawr College^[97][98]
• H-Bomb – Harvard University^[99][100]
• Quake – University of Pennsylvania^[101]
• Squirm – Vassar College^[102]
• Vita Excolatur – University of Chicago^[103]
• Bang^[104] and Untouchables^[104] – Swarthmore College
• Boink – Boston University^[105]

Other accounts

Writings of prostitutes

Lucian of Samosata's Dialogues of the Courtesans.^[107]

Accounts of prostitution have continued as a major part of the genre of erotic literature. In the 18th century, directories of

prostitutes and their services, such as Harris's List of Covent Garden Ladies

(1757–1795), provided both entertainment and instruction.

In the 19th century, the sensational journalism of

Jardin des Supplices (1899) and Jean Lorrain in Monsieur de Phocas (1901).^[108]

Well-known recent works in this genre are

Belle de Jour

.

Erotic memoirs

Erotic memoirs include

My Secret Life by "Walter". Edward Sellon was a writer, translator and illustrator of erotic literature who wrote erotica for the pornographic publisher William Dugdale, including such works as The New Epicurean (1865).^[109]

The true identity of "Walter" is unknown. Ian Gibson, in The Erotomaniac speculates that My Secret Life was actually written by Henry Spencer Ashbee and therefore it is possible that "Walter" is a fiction.

A famous German erotic work of this time, published in two parts in 1868 and 1875 entitled Pauline the Prima Donna purports to be the memoirs of the opera singer

vampirism all before she had reached the age of 27.^[110] 20th-century contributions to the genre include Frank Harris's My Life and Loves (1922–27) and the convicted Austrian sex criminal Edith Cadivec's Confessions and Experiences and its sequel Eros, the Meaning of My Life (published together 1930-1).^[111] A 21st-century example is One Hundred Strokes of the Brush Before Bed (2004) by Melissa Panarello

.

Sex manuals

Main article: Sex manual

Sex manuals are among the oldest forms of erotic literature. Three brief fragments of a sex manual written in the fourth century BC that is attributed to

Sheikh Nefzaoui, is also well-known and is often reprinted and translated. There is anecdotal evidence that, as late as the mid-20th century, sex therapists and other physicians prescribed erotic literature as treatment for erectile dysfunction.^{[citation needed}

]

The ancient Chinese versions of the sex manual include the texts that contain the Taoist sexual practices. These include books that show illustrations of the ideal sexual behavior because sex in this religion is not considered taboo but a manifestation of the concept of the yin and yang,^[115] wherein the male and female engage in an act of "joining of energy" or "joining of essences". The belief is that proper sexual practice is key to achieving good health. The manuals included the Ishinpo text,^[116] which is a medical document that also included sections devoted to sexual hygiene and sexual manuals of the Tang and Han dynasties.

Qigong manuals include warming a wet towel and covering penis for a few minutes, then rubbing one direction away from base of penis hundreds of times daily, similar to qigong. Squeezing sphincter while semi-erect or fully erect dozens of times daily, particularly a few hours before intercourse will help delay orgasm or enhance non-ejaculatory pleasure. The Universal Tao system was developed by Mantak Chia to teach Taoist meditative and exercise techniques to balance the body and increase and refine one's vital energy, or qi. Front and back channel, the back channel is where the perineum is located between anus and scrotum moving up the tailbone to the crown, the front channel is moving down the front of your body down the midline. Breathing up the back channel and then breathing out from the front channel down to and from the abdomen moves chi. Many practices combined help chi to be transformed into spiritual energy or shen.

Not all sex manuals were produced to arouse or inform readers about sexual acts. Some were created as a form of satire or social criticism, as in the case of a mock-sex manual produced in the early sixteenth century by Pietro Aretino. It was in response to the clerical censorship of the nude engravings of the Roman artists Marcantonio Raimondi.^[117] This was released in cheap wood, with a corresponding sonnet serving as the voice of the characters.

Legal status

Further information: Obscenity

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Early legislation

To 1857

Erotic or pornographic works have often been prosecuted, censored and destroyed by the authorities on grounds of obscenity.

Licensing Act 1662

was aimed generally at "heretical, seditious, schismatical or offensive books of pamphlets" rather than just erotica per se. Even this Licensing Act was allowed to lapse in 1695 and no attempt made to renew it.

The first conviction for

legal precedent for other convictions.^[118]

The publication of other books by Curll, however, considered seditious and blasphemous, such as The Memoirs of John Ker, apparently most offended the authorities. Prosecutions of erotica later in the 18th century were rare and were most often taken because of the admixture of seditious and blasphemous material with the porn.

1857–1959

Houses of Parliament

. It was passed on the assurance by the Lord Chief Justice that it was "intended to apply exclusively to works written for the single purpose of corrupting the morals of youth and of a nature calculated to shock the common feelings of decency in any well-regulated mind." The House of Commons successfully amended it so as not to apply to Scotland, on the grounds that Scottish common law was sufficiently stringent.

The Act provided for the seizure and destruction of any material deemed to be obscene, and held for sale or distribution, following information being laid before a "court of summary jurisdiction" (magistrates' court). The Act required that following evidence of a common-law offence being committed – for example, on the report of a plain-clothes policeman who had successfully purchased the material – the court could issue a warrant for the premises to be searched and the material seized. The proprietor then would be called upon to attend court and give reason why the material should not be destroyed. Critically, the Act did not define "obscene", leaving this to the will of the courts.

While the Act itself did not change, the scope of the work affected by it did. In 1868 Sir Alexander Cockburn, Campbell's successor as Lord Chief Justice, held in an appeal that the test of obscenity was "whether the tendency of the matter charged as obscenity is to deprave and corrupt those whose minds are open to such immoral influences and into whose hands a publication of this sort may fall." This was clearly a major change from Campbell's opinion only ten years before – the test now being the effect on someone open to corruption who obtained a copy, not whether the material was intended to corrupt or offend.

Cockburn's declaration remained in force for several decades, and most of the high profile seizures under the Act relied on this interpretation. Known as the

D.H. Lawrence plus medical textbooks by such as Havelock Ellis rather than the blatant erotica which was the original target of this law.^[120]

In contrast to England, where actions against obscene literature were the preserve of the magistrates, such actions were the responsibility of the Postal Inspection Service in America. They were embodied in the federal and state Comstock laws and named after the postal officer and anti-obscenity crusader Anthony Comstock, who proved himself officious in the work of suppression both in his official capacity and through his New York Society for the Suppression of Vice.^[121] The first such law was the Comstock Act, (ch. 258 17 Stat. 598 enacted March 3, 1873) which made it illegal to send any "obscene, lewd, and/or lascivious" materials through the mail. Twenty-four states passed similar prohibitions on materials distributed within the states.^[122]

Modern legislation

This question of whether a book had literary merit eventually prompted a change in the law in both America and the UK. In the United Kingdom the Obscene Publications Act 1959 provided for the protection of "literature" but conversely increased the penalties against pure "pornography." The law defined obscenity and separated it from serious works of art.

The new definition read:

[A]n article shall be deemed to be obscene if its effect or (where the article comprises two or more distinct items) the effect of any one of its items is, if taken as a whole, such as to tend to deprave and corrupt persons who are likely, having regard to all relevant circumstances, to read, see or hear the matter contained or embodied in it.

After this piece of legislation questions of the literary merit of the work in question were allowed to be put before the judge and jury as in the

libel, ceased to be brought to trial following the collapse of the Inside Linda Lovelace trial in 1976. However, in October 2008, a man was unsuccessfully prosecuted under the Obscene Publications Act (the R v Walker trial) for posting fictional written material to the Internet allegedly describing the kidnap, rape and murder of the pop group Girls Aloud.^[123]

The First Amendment to the United States Constitution gives protection to written fiction, although the legal presumption that it does not protect obscene literature has never been overcome. Instead, pornography has successfully been defined legally as non-obscene, or "obscene" been shown to be so vague a term as to be unenforceable. In 1998 Brian Dalton was charged with creation and possession of child pornography under an Ohio obscenity law. The stories were works of fiction concerning sexually abusing children which he wrote and kept, unpublished, in his private journal. He accepted a plea bargain, pleaded guilty and was convicted.^[124] Five years later, the conviction was vacated.

Importing books and texts across national borders can sometimes be subject to more stringent laws than in the nations concerned. Customs officers are often permitted to seize even merely 'indecent' works that would be perfectly legal to sell and possess once one is inside the nations concerned. Canada has been implicated in such border seizures.^{[citation needed]}

Although the Obscene Publications Act of 1857, as well as 1959 legislation, outlawed the publication, retail and trafficking of certain types of writings and images regarded as pornographic, and would order the destruction of shop and warehouse stock meant for sale, the private possession of and viewing of pornography was not prosecuted in those times.^[125] In some nations, even purely textual erotic literature is still deemed illegal and is also prosecuted.^{[citation needed]}

See also

• Bedroom farce
• Erotic literature and art in ancient Rome
• Hispano-Arabic homoerotic poetry
• Femdom
• List of authors of erotic works
• List of genres
• List of pornographic book publishers
• Literotica
• Pornography
• Pornotopia
• Romance novel
• Sex-positive movement

Notes

1. ^ Hyde (1964) p. 1
2. ^ ^{a b} Hyde (1964); pp. 1–26
3. ^ Patrick J. Kearney (1982) A History of Erotic Literature. Parragon: 7–18
4. ^ "Oldest love poem". Guinness World Records. Retrieved September 15, 2019.
5. ISBN 9780802828811
   .
6. ISBN 9780830817832
   .
7. ISBN 0-06-090854-8
   .
8. ISBN 978-1-134-92074-7
9. ISBN 9780805401141
   .
10. ^
    ISBN 0-09-463500-5
11. ISBN 978-0-385-49554-7
    .
12. ^ François de Blois. Haft Peykar // Encyclopædia Iranica 404. — December 15, 2002. — V. XI. — pp. 522–524.
13. ^ Derek Parker, ed. (1980) An Anthology of Erotic Verse; pp. 88–96
14. ^ Patrick J. Kearney (1982) A History of Erotic Literature. Parragon Books: 22, 40–41
15. ^ Parker, Derek, ed. (1980) An Anthology of Erotic Verse. London: Constable
16. ^ Clifford J. Scheiner (1996) The Essential Guide to Erotic Literature, Part Two: After 1920. Ware: Wordsworth: 26–27
17. ^ Patrick J. Kearney (1982) A History of Erotic Literature. Parragon Books: 65
18. ^ Patrick J. Kearney (1982) A History of Erotic Literature. Parragon Books: 71-4
19. ^ Derek Parker, ed. (1980) An Anthology of Erotic Verse: 22
20. Psychoanal. Rev. 404
    , 21:59–74.
21. ISBN 978-90-5201-548-4
    .
22. ^ "John Glassco's Squire Hardman: a Poem and its Contexts". Uwo.ca. July 9, 1954. Archived from the original on March 5, 2012. Retrieved January 21, 2014.
23. ISBN 0-691-05919-5
    .
24. ISBN 0-8014-8993-8
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25. ISBN 978-90-5201-548-4
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26. ^ Arbiter, Petronius. "The Satyricon". Project Gutenberg. Project Gutenberg. Retrieved June 5, 2017.
27. ISBN 0-520-04306-5
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28. ISBN 978-1-4549-0908-8
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29. ^ Hyde (1964); pp. 71–72
30. doi:10.1093/library/s6-XVIII.3.216
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31. ^ Hyde (1964); pp. 75–76
32. ^ Hyde (1964); pp. 76
33. ISBN 0-19-517982-X
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34. ISBN 0-520-20933-8
    , p.75
35. ISBN 0-521-78279-1
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36. ISBN 0-8014-3807-1
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37. ^ Muchembled, (2008) p. 90
38. ISBN 0-19-920914-6
    , p. 100
39. ISBN 1-4051-2291-9
    , p. 51
40. ^ Kronhausen (1969), pp. 7–8
41. ^ The original title is L'escole des filles, ou: la philosophie des dames; later editions sometimes ascribe it to M. Mililot (sic). Pascal Durand edited it in 1959.
42. ISBN 0-586-03674-1
43. ^ Hyde (1964); p. 19
44. ^ Muchembled (2008) p. 77
45. ^ Patrick J. Kearney (1982) A History of Erotic Literature. Parragon: 34–46
46. ^ Kronhausen (1969); pp. 26–32
47. ^ ^{a b} Patrick J Kearney (1982) A History of Erotic Literature. Parragon: 53-7
48. ^ Peter Fryer (1966) Public Case-Private Scandal, Secker & Warburg, p. 84
49. ^ Patrick J. Kearney (1982) A History of Erotic Literature. Parragon: 60-5
50. ^ Mark Steel (2003) Vive la Révolution. London, Scribner; pp. 39–40
51. ^ Ronald Pearsall (1969) "The Worm in the Bud: the world of Victorian sexuality", Macmillan; pp. 404–22
52. ISBN 0-7190-2504-4
    ; p. 135
53. ISBN 0-8095-1188-6
    , p. 25
54. ISBN 1-85984-732-3
    ; pp.117–18
55. Routledge & Kegan Paul 404
    , 1969, p.284
56. ^ "Introduction" to Beatrice (2001) by Gordon Grimley 404. London, The Scarlet Library (illustrated).
57. ^ Hyde (1964): 167–68
58. ^ Henry Spencer Ashbee (1969) Index of Forbidden Books. Sphere
59. ^ Steven Marcus (1969) The Other Victorians. London, Corgi; pp. 34–77
60. ISBN 1-904303-27-7
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61. ISBN 0-19-510470-6
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62. ^ Harford Montgomery Hyde, "The love that dared not speak its name: a candid history of homosexuality in Britain", Little, Brown, 1970, pp.121–123
63. ^ Ronald Pearsall (1971) The Worm in the Bud: The World of Victorian Sexuality. London, Penguin: 561-8
64. ^ ^{a b c} Nelson, James. Publisher to the Decadents: Leonard Smithers in the Careers of Beardsley, Wilde, Dowson. Philadelphia: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2000
65. ISBN 0-299-21764-7
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66. ISBN 0-8112-0995-4
    , p.168
67. doi:10.1353/mod.0.0065
68. ^ Hyde (1964): 177–80
69. ISBN 0-415-25284-9
    , p. 59
70. ^ Ronald Pearsall (1969) The Worm in the Bud: the world of Victorian sexuality, Macmillan; pp. 321, 364
71. ISBN 0-85967-919-5
    , p. 319
72. ISBN 0-389-20314-9
    , pp.94,97,102
73. ISBN 0-520-22569-4
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74. ISBN 0-8135-3519-0
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75. ISBN 0-313-31519-1
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76. ISBN 0-89774-474-8
    , p. 189
77. ISBN 0-87972-055-7
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78. ^ Tracy C. Davis (1989) "The Actress in Victorian Pornography", in: Theatre Journal 404; Vol. 41, No. 3: Performance in Context (October 1989), pp. 294–315 [1]
79. ISBN 0-8214-1019-9
    , pp. 113, 131
80. ^ Kearney (1981), p. 215
81. ISBN 0-7190-7410-X
    ; pp. 86–87
    Roger Shattuck (1961) The Banquet Years: the arts in France, 1885–1918; Alfred Jarry, Henri Rousseau, Erik Satie, Guillaume Apollinaire, Garden City: Doubleday; p. 268
82. ^ Clifford J. Scheiner (1996) The Essential Guide to Erotic Literature, Part One: Before 1920. Ware: Wordsworth; pp. 326–29
83. ^ Kearney (1982), p. 171
84. ISBN 2-902687-01-X
    , pp. 425, 426, 778
85. ISBN 0-415-19895-X
    , p. 177
86. ISBN 0-313-31521-3
    , p. 819
87. ^ Appelbaum, Yoni (September 10, 2014). "Publishers Gave Away 122,951,031 Books During World War II". The Atlantic. Retrieved May 8, 2023.
88. ^ Erotica, pp. 102–103
89. ISBN 0-7190-3605-4
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90. ISBN 1-57344-210-0
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91. ISBN 0824824121
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92. ^ Marche, Stephen (October 21, 2013). "At Last, an English Translation of "The Plum in the Golden Vase"". Los Angeles Review of Books. ...the first complete English translation of the Chin Ping Mei, one of the world's great novels, if not simply the greatest, was released only last month.... It's a masterpiece an epic scholarly achievement.... Like all the great works of humanistic realism, the Chin Ping Mei relishes its own contradictions.
93. ^ "Sexual Seduction Stories". Storify. Retrieved July 16, 2017.>
94. ^ sepoy (December 1, 2004). "Erotic Vita". Retrieved September 13, 2005.
95. ^ "The Moderator". Bard College.
96. ^ "The Moderator". Twitter.
97. ^ "Virgin Mawrtyr". Archived from the original on April 25, 2009. Retrieved November 4, 2006.
98. ^ Halpern, Ashlea (November 1, 2006). "Art-School-Confidential". City Paper. Archived from the original on November 2, 2010.
99. ^ "H-Bomb". Archived from the original on October 20, 2004. Retrieved October 20, 2004.
100. ^ *Nona Walia (August 10, 2005). "A sex bomb at Harvard!". The Times of India.
101. ^ "Quake". Archived from the original on December 1, 2005. Retrieved December 1, 2005.
102. ^ "Squirm". Archived from the original on August 13, 2001. Retrieved August 13, 2001.
103. ^ "Vita Excolatur". Retrieved April 24, 2006.
104. ^ ^{a b} Swarthmore College#Media
105. ^ Howard Stern (September 28, 2005). "The Howard Stern Show".
106. ^ Hyde (1964); pp. 34–44
107. ^ Lucian. "The Mimes of the Courtesans". sacredtexts.org. Retrieved June 5, 2017.
108. ^ Mario Praz (1970) The Romantic Agony. Oxford University Press: 443–451
109. ^ H. Montgomery Hyde (1964) A History of Pornography: 113-5
110. ^ Clifford J. Scheiner (1996) The Essential Guide to Erotic Literature, Part One: Before 1920. Ware: Wordsworth: 91–113
111. ^ Armand Coppens (1973) The Memoirs of an Erotic Bookseller. St Albans, Panther: 66–69
112. ISBN 0-8061-3622-7
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118. ^ "The Obscenity of Censorship: A History of Indecent People and Lacivious Publications," The Erotica Bibliophile. Retrieved May 29, 2006.
119. ^ Perhaps the earliest known appearance of this ever-popular analogy; compare "I would rather give a healthy boy or a healthy girl a phial of prussic acid than this novel," describing The Well of Loneliness 404 in 1928
120. ^ Cyril Pearl (1955) The Girl With the Swansdown Seat; p. 270
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122. ^ Daniel J. Kevles (July 22, 2001). "The Secret History of Birth Control". The New York Times. Retrieved October 21, 2006.
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125. ^ H. Montgomery Hyde A History of Pornography. (1969) London, Heinemann: 14

References

• Brulotte, Gaëtan & Phillips, John (eds.) (2006) Encyclopedia of Erotic Literature. New York: Routledge
• Gibson, Ian (2001) The Erotomaniac London: Faber & Faber
• H. Montgomery Hyde (1964) A History of Pornography. London: Heinemann
• Kearney, Patrick J. (1982) A History of Erotic Literature, Parragon,
  ISBN 1-85813-198-7
• Kronhausen, Phyllis & Eberhard (1959) Pornography and the Law, The Psychology of Erotic Realism and Pornography. New York: Ballantine Books
• Kronhausen, Phyllis & Eberhard (1969) Erotic Fantasies, a Study of Sexual Imagination. New York: Grove Press
• Muchembled, Robert (2008) Orgasm and the West: a history of pleasure from the 16th century to the present,
  ISBN 0-7456-3876-7
• ISBN 0-312-42021-8
  .
• Weller, Michael J. The Secret Blue Book. Home Baked Books,[2], London.
• Williams, Linda
  (1999) Hardcore: Power, Pleasure, and the 'Frenzy of the Visible'. Berkeley: University of California Press

Further reading

• Kearney, Patrick, ed. (1981). The Private Case: an annotated bibliography of the Private Case Erotica Collection in the British (Museum) Library. London Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey: J. Landesman Distributed by Humanities Press.
  ISBN 9780905150246
  . With an introduction by G. Legman.
• Pietrek, Klaus (1992). Lexikon der erotischen Literatur: Autoren, Werke, Themen, Aspekte (in German). Meitingen: Corian-Verl.
  ISBN 9783890480503
  .
• Bondy, François (1989), "Erotische literatur", in Bondy, François (ed.), Harenbergs Lexikon der Weltliteratur: Autoren – Werke – Begriffe (Band 2) (in German), Dortmund: Harenberg-Lexikon-Verl,
  ISBN 9783611000911
  .
• Schweikle, Günther; Schweikle, Irmgard (1990), "Erotische literatur", in Schweikle, Günther; Schweikle, Irmgard (eds.), Metzler Literatur Lexikon: Begriffe und Definitionen (in German), vol. 2, Stuttgart: J.M. Metzlersche,
  ISBN 9783476006684
  .
• von Wilpert, Gero (2001), "Erotische literatur", in von Wilpert, Gero (ed.), Sachwörterbuch der Literatur (in German), vol. 8, Stuttgart: Kröner,
  ISBN 9783520231086
• Hogen, Hildegard; Bode, Eva Beate (2004), "Erotische literatur", in Hogen, Hildegard; Bode, Eva Beate (eds.), Der Brockhaus Literatur: Schriftsteller, Werke, Epochen, Sachbegriffe (in German), vol. 2, Mannheim: F.A. Brockhaus,
  ISBN 9783765303517
• Brulotte, Gaétan; Phillips, John, eds. (2006). Encyclopedia of erotic literature. New York: Routledge.
  ISBN 9781579584412
  .
• Roy, Pinaki (January 2014). "Reviewing Steamies: the literary steam of twenty-first century feminism" (PDF). Labyrinth. 5 (1). Gwalior, India: Dr. Lata Mishra: 68–77.
  ISSN 0976-0814. Archived from the original
  (PDF) on February 8, 2016.
• Straight, Sheryl. "The erotica bibliophile". A Bibliography of Works Published by Charles Carrington
• Wood, Rachel (July 2015). "Sexual consumption within sexual labour: producing and consuming erotic texts and sexual commodities" (PDF).
  S2CID 143264651
  .

History

General

• Atkins, John (1970) Sex in Literature, 4 vols. 1970–1982
• ISBN 978-2-7324-5274-6
• ISBN 2-130-54414-2
• Englisch, Paul (1927) Geschichte der erotischen Literatur, 1927, Reprint 1977,
  ISBN 3-921695-01-5
• Fischer, Carolin (1997) Gärten der Lust: eine Geschichte erregender Lektüren, Stuttgart; Weimar: Metzler
  ISBN 3-476-01563-7
  , paperback: München: Dt. Taschenbuch-Verlag, 2000
• Gnüg, Hiltrud (2002) Der erotische Roman: von der Renaissance bis zur Gegenwart, Ditzingen: Reclam
  ISBN 3-15-017634-4
• Kronhausen, Eberhard & Phyllis (1969) Bücher aus dem Giftschrank: eine Analyse der verbotenen und verfemten erotischen Literatur
• Pia, Pascal, ed. (1971) Dictionnaire des œuvres érotiques. Paris: Mercure de France
• Schreiber, Hermann (1969) Erotische Texte: sexualpathologische Erscheinungen in der Literatur
• Spedding, Patrick, curator (2010) Lewd and Scandalous Books: An exhibition of material from the Monash University Library Rare Books Collection Archived February 5, 2022, at the Wayback Machine, Clayton (Melbourne): Monash University,

Ancient world and Middle Ages

• Leick, G. (1994) Sex and Eroticism in Mesopotamian Literature
  ISBN 0-415-06534-8
• Mulchandani, S. (2006) Erotic Literature of Ancient India: Kama Sutra, Koka Shastra, Gita Govindam, Ananga Ranga
  ISBN 81-7436-384-X

Modern times to 1900

• Goulemot, J. (1993) Gefährliche Bücher: erotische Literatur, Pornographie, Leser und Zensur im 18. Jahrhundert
  ISBN 3-499-55528-X
• Moulton, I. (2000) Before Pornography: erotic writing in early modern Europe
  ISBN 0-19-513709-4

External links

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Category:Erotica

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Category:Erotic poetry