first edition
1760 · London
by [Erotic Literature] Uxorious
London: Printed for L. Pottinger, 1760. First edition. Very Good +. Contemporary calf rebacked to style with gilt rule and morocco spine label. Measuring 165 x 95mm and collating complete: xx, 206. Bookplate of Henry B. H. Beaufroy to upper pastedown and bookplate of Alexander Innes to lower pastedown. With a few instances of scattered foxing, but overall an exceptionally clean and unmarked copy of an erotic text which is scarce institutionally and in trade; in the past 47 years it has appeared only three times at auction, and this is the only copy on the market.
"A cursory reading of Hymen reveals the author's recurring interest in incest taboos, premarital sexual contact, polygamy, the exchange of gifts, curious ceremonial proceedings, regulations on separation and divorce, and dealings with adultery" as well as the role of various bodily fluids across these events (Adams-Campbell). Per the title, the book is "Dedicated to the ladies of Great Britain and Ireland" and, to a major extent, is designed to normalize white Anglo marriage rights (including contemporary gender hierarchies) and to encourage British women to see themselves as superior to women in other cultures. "The comparisons inherent in the British marriage-rites genre promote national chauvinism. Representing the customs of others as absurd, these texts attempt to convince British women to marry, reproduce, and support the status quo" (Adams-Campbell). Yet Hymen also serves a titillating pornographic purpose, providing women readers with an acceptable means for learning about sexuality and sexual practices rarely described to them in graphic detail. These potentially exciting and arousing descriptions could assist women and queer people in imagining -- and potentially in enacting -- new possibilities for sexual satisfaction. This counterpoint to the status quo is supported by the pseudonym of the anonymous author: "uxorious," denoting an excessive or submissive fondness for one's wife, overturns the traditional patriarchal dynamic wherein a woman or wife's desires are secondary (if considered at all) compared to a man or husband's. Cultures in which the women are less restrained and in which their desires are privileged, then, may not be as ridiculous as Hymen suggests on the surface.
ESTC T116155. Not in the Registry of Erotic Books. Very Good +. (Inventory #: 6114)
"A cursory reading of Hymen reveals the author's recurring interest in incest taboos, premarital sexual contact, polygamy, the exchange of gifts, curious ceremonial proceedings, regulations on separation and divorce, and dealings with adultery" as well as the role of various bodily fluids across these events (Adams-Campbell). Per the title, the book is "Dedicated to the ladies of Great Britain and Ireland" and, to a major extent, is designed to normalize white Anglo marriage rights (including contemporary gender hierarchies) and to encourage British women to see themselves as superior to women in other cultures. "The comparisons inherent in the British marriage-rites genre promote national chauvinism. Representing the customs of others as absurd, these texts attempt to convince British women to marry, reproduce, and support the status quo" (Adams-Campbell). Yet Hymen also serves a titillating pornographic purpose, providing women readers with an acceptable means for learning about sexuality and sexual practices rarely described to them in graphic detail. These potentially exciting and arousing descriptions could assist women and queer people in imagining -- and potentially in enacting -- new possibilities for sexual satisfaction. This counterpoint to the status quo is supported by the pseudonym of the anonymous author: "uxorious," denoting an excessive or submissive fondness for one's wife, overturns the traditional patriarchal dynamic wherein a woman or wife's desires are secondary (if considered at all) compared to a man or husband's. Cultures in which the women are less restrained and in which their desires are privileged, then, may not be as ridiculous as Hymen suggests on the surface.
ESTC T116155. Not in the Registry of Erotic Books. Very Good +. (Inventory #: 6114)
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