Men in Love: Masculinity and Sexuality in the Eighteenth Century

Between Men-Between Women: Lesbian and Gay Studies

by George E. Haggerty

Love in all its cultural and personal complexity is the focus of this book. While scholars of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century homoerotic culture have tended to focus on sexual behavior and the much-maligned figure of the sodomite, George E. Haggerty argues that the concepts of love and emotional intimacy offer a more useful perspective for understanding male-male relations of the time.

Haggerty considers male "identities" of many kinds: heroic friends, as found in seventeenth-century French romance and Restoration tragedy, and personal friends, as in the erotic relationships of Gray, Walpole, and West; fops and beaus, as depicted in Restoration and early eighteenth-century comedy and various satirical portraits; effeminate sodomites and mollies depicted in literature and sodomy trial accounts throughout the period; men of feeling and other figures in whom sensibility and sexuality are vividly interconnected. He also discusses libertines and sexual aggressors, especially as depicted in the pages of Gothic fiction.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

224 pages, Paperback

First published June 15, 1999

Reviews

[Jessica DMJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is what a scholarly book should be. I aspire to this kind of academic writing. Well-researched, well-written, and extremely accessible. It reached beyond the ivory tower of academia and made broader statements on (male) love.

For a book published in 1999 (when I was born!), it was also pretty ahead of its time in terms of discussing sexuality and gender. However, I will say there was a very brief part where Haggerty's discussion of bisexuality was a bit awkward and could be read under a problematic light.

This book expanded how I think about love and desire, but I did feel like it was a bit timid and self-contradictory at times.

[Isaac Cavanagh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very enjoyable read, found the chapter on pederasty, and the discussion of Beckford’s sexuality to be potentially problematic, but would recommend nonetheless. Very happy that this book has taught me the term fop now, I endeavour to revive it single-handedly. Would give 4.5 stars but goodreads does not permit

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

bold and daring but often just left me unconvinced.