Introduction

Abstract

This is a book about the development of pornographic literature and an exploration of a great diversity of other sexually-oriented printed matter, which circulated in eighteenth-century Britain. Some erotica revelled in innuendoes and allusive terminology as a means of continuing a discourse on and around sex, particularly in the public arena. Other, more explicit material was directed at the private consumer; this would be the beginnings of what we would now recognise as ‘pornography’. I have looked at both ends of the spectrum and have concentrated on its progress, its major elements, and how both this amatory material and ‘mighty lewde’ works fitted into a broader scheme of the world. I have also looked more specifically at the themes that would be taken up in this material and the sources of these themes.