Peep beneath the sheets and brocade coverlets and capes and dresses to find how royalty and the rich behaved, all about courtesans, celebrity whores and fashionistas, of virginity and masturbation, dildos and sex aids, aphrodisiacs, libido and fertility, ways of avoiding pregnancy including contraception and abortion, sexually transmitted diseases and their treatment, rape, bigamy, bestiality and brothel keeping, bagnios and jelly houses, sodomites, sapphites, flagellation and cross-dressers, and sex and sexuality in 18th century literature and art. The well-known Georgian historian Mike Rendell looks at attitudes towards male and female sexual behaviour during the reigns of Georges I to the IV, and the ways in which these attitudes were often determined by those in positions of power and authority. Faith and superstition, fashion, food, science, art, medicine, magic, literature, love and politics are all seen through a new lens and with a new regard for the ingenuity and character of our ancestors. 191pp, large illustrated paperback.
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