First published in the 1740s, the Merryland books were written by different authors, all describing the female anatomy metaphorically as land ripe for exploration. Facebook Twitter Pinterest ‘The Soyl is very ftrange’ … a page from A New Description of Merryland by Roger Pheuquewell. Photograph: British LibraryTogether with an 18th-century directory of sex workers in the Covent Garden area of London, and the violent erotic works of the Marquis de Sade, the Merryland books are among the 2,500 volumes in the British Library’s Private Case collection. Facebook Twitter Pinterest ‘All of these works are pretty much written by men, for men’ … title page of 1793 edition of Harris’s Lists of Covent-Garden Ladies. Photograph: British Library“All of these works are pretty much written by men, for men.

Source: The Guardian February 04, 2019 17:15 UTC