- Hardcover: 544 pages
- Publisher: Oxford University Press Inc; 1st Edition edition (1 Jan 1984)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0195033523
- ISBN-13: 978-0195033526
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 16 x 4.1 cm
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 779,502 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Review
"Gay's book is controversial but brilliant (as are most of his books). It is well-written and thoroughly researched and should be an excellent required reading for my upper division cultural history of Europe course. My students should have endless fun arguing with Professor Gay and his hero, Sigmund Freud."--Richard Camp, California State University
"[The first volume of] what promises to be one of the major historical enterprises of the decade."--The New York Review of Books
"Gay has written a first-rate synthesis of one of the dimensions most central to the so-called 'bourgeois experience, ' sexuality and sexual behavior."--Gerald Michael Schnabel, Bemidji State University
"Legitimize[s] sexuality itself as a subject of serious historical research...a wonderful and literate book."--Journal of Modern History
"Magisterial...witty and ingenious....Everything about this book is excellent."--Review of Psychoanalytic Books
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Description
In this work, Peter Gay draws on an array of primary sources to re-examine 19th-century sexual behaviour, overturning a number of stereotypes, especially about women and sexuality.
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A WORRYING though often barely visible ingredient in the experience of the nineteenth-century bourgeoisie was anxiety over its very definition: its internal rank orders, its status in society, its relation to other classes, its political future, its moral character. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
A WORRYING though often barely visible ingredient in the experience of the nineteenth-century bourgeoisie was anxiety over its very definition: its internal rank orders, its status in society, its relation to other classes, its political future, its moral character. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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25 of 25 people found the following review helpful
Excellent Social/Cultural History of the Bourgeois (vol 1)
21 Oct 2004
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Seems to me that the reviews Amazon has above do not refer to volume one of this landmark five volume history of the bourgeois. Same goes for at least one of the reviews below.
This series by Peter Gay chronicles the "Bourgeois Century", roughly 1820 to the first world war. Gay's approach is anchored by a commitment to Freudian theory and a cross-cultural approach that takes in British, French, German and American culture with equal interest.
His scholarship is careful and nuanced. He draws equally adeptly from primary and secondary materials and this volume see saws between able synthesis and novel (re) interpretations of primary sources.
As the subtitle states, this volume focuses on "the education of the senses", which is a euphimism for the process by which a young victorian (man) learns about sex. That is not to say that Gay focuses exclusively on the experience of men, far from it.
Education of the Senses begins with a general introduction that I assume applies to all five volumes. Gay is careful to explain the background of the nineteenth century: i.e. that it was a period of ferocious change and that people were greatly affected and disturbed by that change.
The subtitle of Education of the Senses is "Bourgeois Experiences, I: An Erotic Record", and that it precisely the territory covered by this volume.
First off, he discusses the diary of Mabel Loomis Todd, an east coast American bourgeois. Her story is that of the woman who marries and is unfaithful to her husband. Gay uses her experience to demonstrate that the sex life of the Victorian was more complicated then previous scholars thought (this is the overriding theme of all of his work in this area).
Gay marches through Bourgeois attitudes towards sex within marriage (i.e. women were not sexually anthesthic), the role of feminism in Victorian culture, the place of birth control and birth, the role of the medical establishment in promoting half truths about sex, the place of pornography and the place of private family life, among several other topics.
Gay is judicious in his use of Freudian theory, I found it interesting, not overwhelming or dogmatic. His writing style is fluid. First rate cultural history. Can't wait for volume two, though I probably will wait for a while...
This series by Peter Gay chronicles the "Bourgeois Century", roughly 1820 to the first world war. Gay's approach is anchored by a commitment to Freudian theory and a cross-cultural approach that takes in British, French, German and American culture with equal interest.
His scholarship is careful and nuanced. He draws equally adeptly from primary and secondary materials and this volume see saws between able synthesis and novel (re) interpretations of primary sources.
As the subtitle states, this volume focuses on "the education of the senses", which is a euphimism for the process by which a young victorian (man) learns about sex. That is not to say that Gay focuses exclusively on the experience of men, far from it.
Education of the Senses begins with a general introduction that I assume applies to all five volumes. Gay is careful to explain the background of the nineteenth century: i.e. that it was a period of ferocious change and that people were greatly affected and disturbed by that change.
The subtitle of Education of the Senses is "Bourgeois Experiences, I: An Erotic Record", and that it precisely the territory covered by this volume.
First off, he discusses the diary of Mabel Loomis Todd, an east coast American bourgeois. Her story is that of the woman who marries and is unfaithful to her husband. Gay uses her experience to demonstrate that the sex life of the Victorian was more complicated then previous scholars thought (this is the overriding theme of all of his work in this area).
Gay marches through Bourgeois attitudes towards sex within marriage (i.e. women were not sexually anthesthic), the role of feminism in Victorian culture, the place of birth control and birth, the role of the medical establishment in promoting half truths about sex, the place of pornography and the place of private family life, among several other topics.
Gay is judicious in his use of Freudian theory, I found it interesting, not overwhelming or dogmatic. His writing style is fluid. First rate cultural history. Can't wait for volume two, though I probably will wait for a while...
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