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Unspeakable
Hardback
€44.95
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- Book Synopsis
- The sexual exploitation of children by adults has a long, fraught history. Yet how cultures have reacted to it is shaped by a range of forces, beliefs, and norms, like any other social phenomenon. Changes in how Anglo-American culture has understood intergenerational sex can be seen with startling clarity in the life of British writer Norman Douglas (1868-1952), who was a beloved and popular author, a friend of luminaries like Graham Greene, Aldous Huxley, and D.H. Lawrence, and an unrepentant and uncloseted pederast. Rachel Hope Cleves's careful study opens a window onto the social history of intergenerational sex in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, revealing how charisma, celebrity, and contemporary standards protected Douglas from punishment-until they didn't. Unspeakable approaches Douglas as neither monster nor literary hero, but as a man who participated in an exploitative sexual subculture that was tolerated in ways we may find hard to understand. Using letters, diaries, memoirs, police records, novels, and photographs-including sources by the children Douglas encountered-Cleves identifies the cultural practices that structured pedophilic behaviors in England, Italy, and other places Douglas favored. Her book delineates how approaches to adult-child sex have changed over time and offers insight into how society can confront similar scandals today, celebrity and otherwise.
- About The Author
- Rachel Hope Cleves is professor of history at the University of Victoria.
- Product Details
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- ISBN
- 9780226733531
- Format
- Hardback
- Publisher
- The University of Chicago Press, (22 January 2021)
- Number of Pages
- 369
- Weight
- 626 grams
- Language
- English
- Dimensions
- 229 x 152 x 28 mm
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