The Worm in the Bud: The World of Victorian Sexuality

A fascinating and all encompassing book about Victorian morals that could have used a lot of editing. There was a lot of repetition - I got the feeling it had been a series of essays that were pulled together to make a book. Anyway, it's fun and gossipy with bawdy music hall songs, excerpts from dirty books (lots of flagellation) and history about things like the various Married Women's acts that gave women more rights.

I believe the author had a research problem in the writing of this book. In the Victorian Era it seems there was a lot more written by and about men than was written by and about women. He wrote a fair amount about public schools and homosexuality but little about women's schools and lesbianism. Of course, there was a great deal written about public schools and almost nothing written about women's few places of education.

Then there is the author's reliance on Kinsey's reports on human sexuality. Now I realize those reports were the only information available at the time, but the author uses them unquestioningly. And even if those reports were totally correct that is no reason to believe that Victorian statistics would have been just the show more same. To say that if Kinsey says sexuality now is so-and-so then Victorian sexuality was also so-and-so is very shaky reasoning.

If you read the book keep in mind that most of the source material was written by men and for men. The book made it plain that it was not a good time to be a woman. Women were caught in the constrictions of middle-class morality. For a woman to live her own life meant she was cast out by a society that had brainwashed her into a certain mode of conduct all her life. Even though some did it it was hard to do.

Finally, there is no bibliography in the book. The books he used for research are mentioned in the Notes and References but I think the lack of a separate bibliography is sheer laziness.

The book is worth reading and worth using as a reference but its faults must be kept in mind specially when considering statistics. But read it and decide for yourself. I think it will repay your time. show less