When Flesh Becomes Word collects nine different examples of British libertine literature that appeared before 1750. Three of these--The School of Venus (1680), Venus in the Cloister (1725), and A Dialogue Between a Married Lady and a Maid (1740)--are famous "whore dialogues," dramatic conversations between an older, experienced woman and a younger, inexperienced maid. Previously unavailable in an affordable edition, these dialogues combine sex education, medical folklore, and erotic literature in a decidedly proto-pornographic form. This edition presents other important examples of libertine literature, including bawdy poetry, a salacious medical treatise, an irreverent travelogue, and a criminal biography. The combination of both popular and influential texts presented in this edition provides an accessible introduction to the variety of material available to eighteenth-century readers before the publication of John Cleland's Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure in 1749.

"Given the rarity and yet the unacknowledged importance of these kinds of work, Mudge provides a significant service for understanding both the origins of the novel and the special character of pornography. Highly recommended."--Library Journal

Bradford K. Mudge is Professor of English at the University of Colorado and the author of The Whore's Story: Women, Pornography, and the British Novel, 1684-1830.

List of Illustrations

A Note on the Texts

Introduction: British Libertine Literature before Fanny Hill (1749)

1. The School of Venus (1680)

2. The Pleasures of a Single Life (1701), The Fifteen Comforts of Cuckoldom (1706), and The Fifteen Plagues of a Maiden-Head (1707)

3. Gonosologium Novum (1709)

4. Venus in the Cloister (1725)

5. A Dialogue Between a Married Lady and a Maid (1740)

6. A New Description of Merryland (1741)

7. The Female Husband (1746)

Notes

Bibliography

Index