“A man who reads discovers morality. A woman who reads forgets it – fortunately.” Voltaire
Today, erotic literature is mostly written by women for women. But that’s nothing new says Werner Fuld – erotic literature was always written primarily for women. And often by women. In the Italian Renaissance, courtesans wrote poetry – and were admired by their male colleagues. In liberal England around 1670, female authors like Aphra Behn delighted their audiences with comedies and frivolous novels. There were lessons on sexual independence and statements against the convention of marriage. Long before the Enlightenment, female authors influenced French salon culture and set the tone with their liberal ideas.
It was only after the French Revolution that bourgeois morality and puritanical Christian virtues regained the upper hand. Libertine works disappeared from bookshelves all over Europe – and their authors vanished from cultural memory. Sensual literature became an under-the-counter good and lost its emancipatory clout. Women have only recently rediscovered this field for themselves and, in the words of Erica Jong, lost their “fear of flying”.
On his journey, Werner Fuld highlights the full spectrum of the art of sensual writing. Packed with verve and seasoned with wit and irony, he presents his findings and recounts the captivating and highly convoluted history of erotic literature and its, in some cases, forgotten authors.
