Synopses & Reviews
What is Love? provides a timely appreciation of Richard Carlile’s neglected shocker,
Every Woman’s Book. Originally published in 1826, it scored a double first: as a progressive sex manual and as the first book in English to specify methods of contraception.
Carlile, a leading radical of the early nineteenth century, was notorious for his blend of republicanism, atheism and libertarianism. His book created a philosophy of sex which was found irresponsible and obscene at the time but today appears sensible and progressive. It proposed that sex was a right of adulthood rather then a marital privilege; that sexual satisfaction was necessary to a person’s health and happiness; that sexual intercourse was a virtue and therefore a source of morality; and that men and women both had the same sexual needs and were therefore naturally equal.
Michael Bush provides a lucid and entertaining introduction to Carlile, a man opposed to alcohol and meat-eating but committed to the ‘health-giving’ properties of raw mercury, and who served ten years in prison for his beliefs, during which he organised an extensive following of fellow republicans and atheists. Bush’s careful analysis of the personal and intellectual origins of Carlile’s work and its impact do full justice to what is both a fascinating historical document and a key influence on society’s acceptance of a liberal, sensualist view of sex.
Synopsis
A pioneering sex manual and manifesto on free love
'Love is one of the chief sources of human happiness; its state among mankind requires improvement, and better means of enjoying it are required to be known. The following pages have been written with that and with no other view, and the Publisher places his motives for judgement in the hands of the young, the middle-aged, the healthy, the happy, the virtuous, and the sensible part of the community of both sexes. Preface, What is Love? (1826)
Richard Carlile, a leading figure in early-nineteenth-century radical London, was notorious for his blend of republicanism, religious free thought and libertarianism.
In the pamphlet What is Love?, he presented his most sustained statement on 'free love', advocating not only honesty and equality for both sexes in matters of love and sex, but also advice and encouragement in the use of birth control.
With an introduction by Michael Bush which places the pamphlet in the wider context of nineteenth-century metropolitan radicalism, and a witty preface which views it as a forerunner to today's sex manuals, What is Love? is both a fascinating historical document and a piece of propaganda arguably as pertinent today as it was in the 1820s.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 173-200) and index.