The Whore's Story Women, Pornography, and the British Novel, 1684-1830

by Mudge, Bradford K.

• ISBN13: 9780195135053
• ISBN10: 0195135059
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-06-08
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

This fresh and persuasively argued book examines the origins of pornography in Britain and presents a comprehensive overview of women's role in the evolution of obscene fiction. Carefully monitoring the complex interconnections between three related debates--that over the masquerade, that over the novel, and that over prostitution--Mudge contextualizes the growing literary need to separate good fiction from bad and argues that that process was of crucial importance to the emergence of a new, middle-class state. Looking closely at sermons, medical manuals, periodical essays, and political tracts as well as poetry, novels, and literary criticism, The Whore's Story tracks the shifting politics of pleasure in eighteenth-century Britain and charts the rise of modern, pornographic sensibilities.

Author Biography

Bradford K. Mudge is Associate Professor of English at the University of Colorado, Denver.

Table of Contents

Introduction. Women, Pornography, and Literary History	p. 3
Popular Culture and the Emergence of the Modern State
Masquerades and Prostitutes	p. 33
The Feminization of the Novel	p. 59
Women Writers, Gothic Novels, Romantic Poets	p. 89
Pornography and Literature
Passionate Women and Unruly Novels	p. 121
Venus in the Marketplace	p. 151
Virgins, Whores, and Devils	p. 185
Conclusion. The Whore's Story	p. 223
Notes	p. 253
Index	p. 269
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