"What did the Victorians know about desire between men? Was it really 'the love that dare not speak its name'? ""Nameless Offences"" argues that even before Oscar Wilde and the rise of sexual science there was an open, public and concerted discussion of same-sex desire that went to the heart of Victorian notions of masculinity, civil society, class and identity. How did homosexuality come to be known as a 'secret vice', consigned to a secret place - the closet - when contemporaries regularly described its existence as widespread, threatening and even notorious? ""Nameless Offences"" asks where the closet came from and how the English learned to describe that which was 'nameless' and indescribable in this way. This groundbreaking book offers the definitive portrait of male homosexuality in the nineteenth century and includes many perceptive insights into what it reveals about the interaction between public and private morality which lay at the heart of Victorian England."
By:
H. G. Cocks
Imprint: Bloomsbury
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 216mm,
Width: 138mm,
Spine: 20mm
Weight: 362g
ISBN: 9781848850903
ISBN 10: 1848850905
Series: Social and Cultural History Today
Pages: 288
Publication Date: 30 November 2009
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Professional & Vocational
,
A / AS level
,
Further / Higher Education
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Contents List of maps, tables and figures Acknowledgements Introduction: Histories of the Closet? PART I Prosecuting the ‘Unnatural Crime’ Policing Sodomy in the Nineteenth-Century City PART II Reading the Sodomite Respectability, Blackmail and the Transformation of Scandal PART III ‘A Strange and Indescribable Feeling’: Unspeakable Desires in Late-Victorian England Conclusion Notes Select Bibliography Index
Dr Harry Cocks is Research Fellow at the Department of History, University of Manchester.
Reviews for Nameless Offences: Homosexual Desire in the 19th Century
'Nameless Offences is a cogently argued and well-written book which contributes importantly to our understanding of the history of the legal regulation of sexual behaviour between men in the 19th century...I cannot do justice...to the richness of his historical narrative...[he] has found gems of narrative detail - and woven them into a persuasive analysis.' - Morris B. Kaplan, Associate Professor of Philosophy, State University of New York; 'a breath of fresh air...a powerful contribution to the history of male homosexuality...and the cultural history of nineteenth-century Britain.' - Matt Houlbrook, Gender and History; 'impeccably researched...unquestionably a major work.' - Ross G. Forman, Victorian Studies; 'brilliantly explores particular forms of queer interiority' - Chris Waters, GLQ
