A history of English sexual morals / by Ivan Bloch ; translated by William H. Forstern.

  • Iwan Bloch
Date:
1936
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: A history of English sexual morals / by Ivan Bloch ; translated by William H. Forstern. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Gustav Rasch, in his book London by Night, wrote: ' I cannot help laughing whenever I think how carefully every man, young or old, sitting opposite each other on the narrow seats of an omnibus, endeavours to straighten the dress of any woman who passes between them so that on no account shall there be least glimpse of her foot or still worse of her garter. Each face wears such an earnest look—like a priest who in the morning preaches on the immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary and in the evening, over a glass of red wine, smiles at the simpleness of the faithful.'—* I cannot walk down this street with you a friend said to me. I had been lunching with him at Bibra's Hotel in St. Martin's Lane and wanted to make a short cut down a side street to a small bookshop. Why ever not ? I asked him, astonished. The street was narrow but I saw nothing queer about it. Well, in that public house over there rooms are let for rendez-vous. But what does that matter? We have no intention of taking a room there. No, but I might run into an acquaintance, you see; and my reputation would suffer.1' Prudery was so deep-rooted in England that even Science, which should know neither shamelessness nor shame, was tainted by it. Dr. Bourneville, publisher of Progres Medical, and one of the most distinguished French physicians, prints the following notice in No. 52 of his paper, dated 30th December, 1899 : 4 We are informed that on December 19th the English police seized every copy of the English translation of Charles Fere's work La Pathologie des Emotions, on the ground that the book was obscene and likely to corrupt the morals of Her Majesty's subjects. The police had at the same time seized the second volume of Havelock Ellis's Studies in the Psychology of Sex2 Similarly, an article on 1 G. Rasch, London by Night. Berlin, 1873. Pp. 83-84. 2 It is an indication of the change in outlook since this book was written, that a condensed edition of Havelock Ellis's great work is now generally on sale.—Ed. [10]