Libertine London investigates the sex lives of women from 1680 to 1830, the period known as the long eighteenth century. It uncovers the various experiences of women, whether mistresses, adulteresses or those involved in the sex trade. From renowned courtesans to downtrodden streetwalkers, Julie Peakman examines the multifaceted lives of these women within brothels, on stage and even behind bars. Based on new research into court transcripts, asylum records, magazines, pamphlets, satires, songs, theatre plays and erotica, we learn of the gruesome treatment of women who were sexually active outside of marriage. Julie Peakman looks at sex from women’s points of view, undercutting the traditional image of the bawdy eighteenth century to expose a more sordid side, of women left distressed, ostracized and vilified for their sexual behaviour.

Judging by the satirical cartoons Georgian England was one never-ending sexual playground . . . This fascinating book . . . reveals another, darker, side to this erotic Eden. * Mail on Sunday *
Libertine London is the story of sex in the capital from the Restoration to Jane Austen’s time . . . The material is fascinating, if grotesque. -- Tanya Gold * Daily Telegraph *
It seems that eighteenth-century brothel owners had their own pre-Viagra cures for erectile dysfunction, aimed at men known as “flogging cullies.” “Flagellation was a fixation of the period. . . . The theory was a good flogging would increase the blood rush to the necessary parts,” notes historian Peakman in Libertine London: Sex in the Eighteenth-Century Metropolis. This clear-eyed study of the sex lives of women from 1680 to 1830 also notes that diarist Samuel Pepys, a man whose name is usually spoken in reverent terms as a literary giant, was “a known groper.” That revelation didn’t seem to make it into his own diaries. * The Independent, ‘Books of the Month’ *
Peakman knows her stuff – she has written extensively on sexuality and pornography in 18th-century Britain – and Libertine London is a fascinating study of the price of sexual freedom in a society that held men and women to different moral standards. * The Idler *
Today’s woman is sometimes frustrated by lack of parity – in wages or opportunity. ln Libertine London, Julie Peakman, an authority on 18th-century sex, makes these irritations pale beside the life-threatening horrors women endured . . . Peakman’s book abounds in stories. * The Oldie *
It seems eighteenth-century Londoners were a particularly prurient lot. This monograph explores the libertine world that they inhabited in its myriad permutations. It draws on a rich and wide array of primary sources, such as court records, pamphlets, plays, satires, print engravings, poems, songs, and personal correspondence to paint a very vivid picture of what sex outside of marriage looked like during the long eighteenth century, c. 1680–1830 . . . This book provides a superb general overview of the topic . . . Recommended. * Choice *
A wide-ranging and richly illustrated guide to the fascinating sexual cultures of eighteenth-century London. * Fara Dabhoiwala, author of The Origins of Sex: A History of the First Sexual Revolution *
The Georgians did not invent sex but they were the first to explore publicly all its permutations. To discover more, read Julie Peakman's frank and enticing study. * Penelope J. Corfield, Emeritus Professor, Royal Holloway, University of London, and author of The Georgians: The Deeds and Misdeeds of 18th-Century Britain *

Julie Peakman is a historian and author of many books on the history of sexuality. She is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and Honorary Fellow at Birkbeck College, University of London. She is a frequent contributor to academic journals, national newspapers and popular magazines and has worked on television documentaries for the BBC, Channel 4, Sky and the Biography Channel.