A.D. Harvey

A very well researched history of the attitudes, assumptions, and beliefs surrounding sexuality in eighteenth century England. Harvey presents evidence on all sorts of aspects, from condom use dynamics to sexual positions (standing up, or leaning against things, was a particular favorite of the time, and "undressing" generally just meant outer garments--shifts usually stayed on, so true nakedness was rare) to the hilarious shift in perception that took place regarding women's libido: before the 1700s women were assumed to be far lustier, and afterwards were considered to have so little interest in sex that having any was grounds for psychiatric diagnosis. Harvey writes with an enjoyably arch tone but always backs up his points with loads of endnotes and quotes--even tables of rape and prostitution statistics!… (más)

I was torn on this one, because I chortled reading it A LOT, and there were some fun facts about animalz that i couldn't have picked up otherwise without going to Wikipedia. But this is REALLY stupid. When you read the back, get to the part about "the whales want them. OR ELSE", of course you assume it's a joke, and then it takes a while before you realize it (yikes!) is not, and then you look at the blurb and it's "AD Harvey is known to readers of American, British, French, Dutch, Swiss, and South African scholarly quarterlies", so you assume he's a scholar with a pet project who just can't write, or a performance artists taking the piss, and neither of those assumptions pan out but you're still positively disposed toward him because he makes you chortle, but then there's just all this creepy sort of . . . . feces standing in for intimacy (read it and see, or don't), and empty-headed females needing male protection, and nothing about it makes any sense but you're giving him sufferance for the first half so you don't realize it until they get to the Island at the end and it turns into an episode of Lost . . . . and the resolution is pure garbage dressed up as profundity. Let the whales and ants extirpate humanity and fight it out for all the marbles, I say, if it means we don't have to read any more assmongering like this. Also, the "Cadillac of vanity publishers" really isn't much of a recommendation, is it?… (más)