The history of sexuality. Volume 1 The will to knowledge - Michel Foucault

'A brilliant display of fireworks,
attacking the widespread and banal
notion that "in the beginning" sexual
activity was guilt-free and
delicious, being repressed and blighted
only by the gloom of
Victorianism' Spectator

We
talk about sex more and more, but are we more liberated? The first part
of Michel Foucault's landmark account of our evolving attitudes in the
west shows how the nineteenth century, far from suppressing sexuality,
led to an explosion of discussion about sex as a separate sphere of life
for study and examination. As a result, he argues, we are making a
science of sex which is devoted to the analysis of desire rather than
the increase of pleasure.

'A wealth of insights, original conceptualizations and provocative ideas' The Times Literary Supplement