Historical Erotica

RosyMaylor

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Anyone else write or love to read historical erotica or romance? What do you love about it?

I'm a huge fan of history and the classics. But I'm also a perv, so I think the lack of sex, or the sexual subtext, in the classics I grew up reading made me especially fascinated by historical fiction that brings sex and sexuality into the main text. If that makes sense?

I especially enjoy Regency and Victorian erotica, for that reason, I think. There's something so hot about exploring the sex lives of Austen and Dickens era people because we never see that part of the character's lives in the fiction of the day. So it seems a bit taboo?

Also, I guess those eras have a "once upon a time" feel to them, because they're long enough ago that they're easily romanticized but not so long ago that they're inaccessible. Familiar and yet fantastic?

Are there other eras you prefer? What draws you to them as a reader or a writer?
 

scandalys

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Me!

Though I actually prefer historical to contemporary in non-romance, too. If I want to experience the 21st century, I'll go outside for a change. :p

Victorian is okay, but I gravitate to Tudor and earlier periods.
 

ElaineA

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Sort of. Though, I don't really think it counts.

What doesn't count? And count as what? Erotica?

My first love is HF. From there my reading crept toward HRom simply because I did enjoy the romance elements of a lot of HF. I do see a lot of erotic romance publishers looking for historical so it seems like a wide-open market.

Regency doesn't do it for me anymore. Too saturated. Regency HRom has gotten very erotic anyway, so there's not much that isn't being explored in all but Sweet romance. The French court eras seem under-exploited. They have a lot of erotica potential since the sexual mores were looser under some of the Louis's. (Not to mention having the Marquis de Sade running about.) Victorian is interesting for the opposite reason. The sexual conservatism of life then would make for fun erotica writing and reading.

I'll take pretty much any historical era, though. I'm almost always in it to learn a little something, along with being entertained.
 

RosyMaylor

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Heh heh, I cut my teeth on really trashy Victorian and faux-Victorian homosexual erotica (probably written circa 1950 - 1970). Some of it was not terrible, and some was hilariously overwrought.

I would be curious to read some of that! Sounds awesome!
 

RosyMaylor

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Me!

Though I actually prefer historical to contemporary in non-romance, too. If I want to experience the 21st century, I'll go outside for a change. :p

Victorian is okay, but I gravitate to Tudor and earlier periods.

Right? That's why I don't write contemporary. ;) I'm obsessed with the Tudor era, but I haven't tried to write within it!
 

RosyMaylor

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What doesn't count? And count as what? Erotica?

My first love is HF. From there my reading crept toward HRom simply because I did enjoy the romance elements of a lot of HF. I do see a lot of erotic romance publishers looking for historical so it seems like a wide-open market.

Regency doesn't do it for me anymore. Too saturated. Regency HRom has gotten very erotic anyway, so there's not much that isn't being explored in all but Sweet romance. The French court eras seem under-exploited. They have a lot of erotica potential since the sexual mores were looser under some of the Louis's. (Not to mention having the Marquis de Sade running about.) Victorian is interesting for the opposite reason. The sexual conservatism of life then would make for fun erotica writing and reading.

I'll take pretty much any historical era, though. I'm almost always in it to learn a little something, along with being entertained.

Yeah, Regency is unfortunately over done. I agree about the French court, that would be fun!
 

M Louise

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At school I came across uncensored Rabelais and was taken aback at the preoccupation with scatology in Renaissance France. As well as the fantasies about bawdy priests and nuns. I'd also like to know more about the French court and French erotica, though I find the sado-masochistic details in the Marquis de Sade and Story of O (early 20th century) off-putting.

And much of the original Victorian pornographic/erotic fiction featured flagellation (Swinburne etc) with themes of repression and punishment, that contrast between the stern public school keeping-up-appearances and what was forbidden. A good review of 'embarrassing Victorian bodies' in a new study of 19th-century mores and behaviours here.
 
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RosyMaylor

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At school I came across uncensored Rabelais and was taken aback at the preoccupation with scatology in Renaissance France. As well as the fantasies about bawdy priests and nuns. I'd also like to know more about the French court and French erotica, though I find the sado-masochistic details in the Marquis de Sade and Story of O (early 20th century) off-putting.

And much of the original Victorian pornographic/erotic fiction featured flagellation (Swinburne etc) with themes of repression and punishment, that contrast between the stern public school keeping-up-appearances and what was forbidden. A good review of 'embarrassing Victorian bodies' in a new study of 19th-century mores and behaviours here.

Yes, I read that article! I really enjoy vintage erotic photography too (late 19th early 20th century). It's so staged and awkward, but still compelling somehow. I'm not a de Sade fan. Story of O was more interesting.
 

M Louise

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Yes, staged, awkward and compelling is exactly what it looks like! Not least because you were standing or bending or posing for a photographer with a cloth over his head telling you to keep still and watch the birdie. And because women were usually not expected to share sexual pleasure or orgasm, it didn't matter that the women looked embarrassed or bored standing around in a draughty studio in tight corsets and brandishing riding crops. That gap between what it was really like creating erotica then and what the fantasy was then and now is so intriguing.

The story of how Anne Desclos/Pauline Réage came to write The Story of O (1954) to prove to her lover that a woman could write an erotic novel resonates in so many ways for women writing subversive sexual narratives. She only felt free to claim authorship in 1994.
 

jo_wren

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If you're every looking for a non-fiction approach to historical sexuality, I highly recommend the website http://www.thewhoresofyore.com/ They have awesome articles on a range of topics, and an extremely well-curated Twitter feed (if you're into that sort of thing.) One of my favorite articles they've put up recently explores the history of the vibrator, with a specific emphasis on the Victorian period. It's super fun and super educational.

(Also, sorry to jump on this band wagon so late! I'm new to the board, but I really wanted to share on this topic.)