Bedroom antics

‘How we perceive the past, what we see in it and what we ignore, depends on our current perspective’, writes Faramerz Dabhoiwala at the end of his hotly-anticipated The Origins of Sex. Well, quite. In seeking words to describe Dabhoiwala’s history of sex, though, none could be more appropriate. The book resounds with sundry modern truths, so much so, in fact, that when Dr. Dabhoiwala finally poses the question, ‘How far, then, have we come?’ The answer, ‘Not very, sir, since 1800’, springs to mind.

In tandem with the explosion of popular publications, mass circulation of literature, and most importantly the emergence in force of the factual biography from around 1800, Dabhoiwala suggests, it became increasingly permissible, indeed, desirable, for individuals’ intimate details to be publicised, mulled over, and discussed.

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