Libertine London: Sex in the Eighteenth Century Metropolis
by: Julie Peakman

Hardcover. London, Reaktion Books, 1st, 2024, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket with light wear to bottom of spine. 360 pages, color and b&w illustrations, index. Libertine London investigates the sex lives of women from 1680 to 1830, the period known as the long eighteenth century. It uncovers the various experiences of women, whether mistresses, adulteresses or those involved in the sex trade. From renowned courtesans to downtrodden streetwalkers, Julie Peakman examines the multifaceted lives of these women within brothels, on stage and even behind bars. Based on new research into court transcripts, asylum records, magazines, pamphlets, satires, songs, theatre plays and erotica, we learn of the gruesome treatment of women who were sexually active outside of marriage. Julie Peakman looks at sex from women's points of view, undercutting the traditional image of the bawdy eighteenth century to expose a more sordid side, of women left distressed, ostracised and vilified for their sexual behaviour. Unveils the complex sex lives of libertine women in eighteenth-century London.