Libertines and Radicals in Early Modern London: Sexuality, Politics and Literary Culture, 1630-1685

This study analyzes English sexual culture between the Civil Wars and the death of Charles II in unprecedented detail. James Grantham Turner examines a broad range of Civil War and Restoration texts, from sex-crime records to Milton's epics and Rochester's "mannerly obscene" lyrics. Throughout, he interprets satirical texts, whether political or pornographic, as an attempt to neutralize women's efforts to establish their own institutions and voice. This exhaustive study will be of interest to cultural historians as well as literary scholars.