Finding sexual perversion in the past, pre-sexology, is a new field of inquiry.

Julie's edition on sexual perversion in history is published by Palgrave MacMillan (2009).

Sexual Perversions, 1670-1890

Edited by Julie Peakman

In a series of original essays, Sexual Perversions attempts to open a debate – to begin an exploration into the history of the many sexual activities considered outside the realm of normal behaviour. For the first time in an examination of this period, such diverse subject matter as necrophilia, paedophilia, cross-dressing, religious perversion, foot fetishism and rape, will be brought together. The book covers religion, culture and literature in history and introduces new scholars working in the arena of the history of sexuality. It involves an analytical appraisal of documentation including plays, poems, erotica, trial records, pamphlets, sermons, and travelogues, in a multi-disciplinary approach.

  

CONTENTS:

List of Illustrations

Notes on Contributors

Preface; J.Peakman

Introduction part I:What is Sexual Perversion? edited J.Peakman

Introduction part II: Sexual Perversion Pre-Sexology, edited J.Peakman

Staging Perversion: The Restoration's Sexual Allegory of (un) Civil War; B.McLaughlin

Objects, Desire, Identity and Eros in the Writings of Lord Hervey and Charlotte Charke;

M.Morris

The Woman in Man's Clothes and the Pleasures of Delarivier Manley's "New Cabal"; J.Frangos

The Hostile Gaze: Perverting the Female Form, 1688-1800; J.Skipp

Rape and the Construction of Female Sexuality in the Eighteenth Century; J.Mills

Morbid Parts: Gender, Violence and the Necro-Gaze; R.E.May

Nuns, Monks and Sexual Perversion in the Church; D.Peschier

Tropics of Sexuality: Sexual Excesses and Oriental Vices' in the British Raj; P.Murthy

Chinese Sexuality and the Bound Foot; S.Adams

 

Peakman has published Whores Biographies 1700-1825 for Pickering & Chatto (2007), eight meticulously edited volumes of rare texts focusing on autobiographies and biographies of courtesans, directories of whores, essays on whoring and erotic poems dedicated to harlots. These are excellent sources for the study of sexuality, gender, women stidies and the study of histroy and literature in the eighteenth cnetury and regency period. See www.pickeringchatto.com/whorebiographies

Julie Peakman's biography of Emma Hamilton for Haus Publishing was published in 2005.

Emma Hamilton

 Emma Hamilton (1765-1815) epitomised the classic tale of an eighteenth-century woman's rise from poverty to fame and riches using nothing but beauty and feminine guile.  

Beautiful and vivacious, Emma was a 'fallen woman' in her youth, but in her twenties rose to become a titled lady and the toast of Naples expatriate society.   She was adored by two of the most famous men of the eighteenth century: she was mistress, then wife, to Sir William Hamilton (1730-1805) and went on to capture the heart of the most famous sea-fighter of all time, Horatio Nelson (1758-1808). She lived much of her life in high society but at the end, was to die in poverty in Calais where she had been exiled for debt.

In this book one of today's most innovative historians of sex and gender presents new insights into the life of one of history's most glamorous women. This book offers an understanding not only of Emma's sexuality but also of her diplomatic importance which has been so frequently played down. It covers Emma's life with Hamilton, their bizarre ménage a trois with Nelson and the genuine love which passed between the three of them.

WOMEN'S WRITING JOURNAL

Her commemorative edition of Women's Writing in tribute to Professor Roy Porter came out in Summer 2004. See Women's Writing Page for further information.