Interested in sex? No? OK, you need not read this recent history of social attitudes towards the grisly function. Philip Larkin famously wrote in ‘Annus Mirabilis’
Sexual intercourse began
In nineteen sixty-three
(which was rather late for me) –
Between the end of the Chatterley ban
And the Beatles’ first LP.
The observation is both beautifully ironic and wrong (which, of course Larkin knew). Our modern day attitudes have their origins between 1600-1800.
Dabhoiwala draws on a wide range of sources – sermons, pornography and social statistics – to show how these attitudes got adopted. Examples are the view that sexual desires are a natural drive (rather than inherently sinful), that extra-marital sex is practically inevitable, and that mutual consent is at the core of morality concerning sex. This is a thoroughly well researched work on the history of social attitudes, and entertaining to boot.
Worth taking to bed.
ISBN: 978-0241955963