The History of Sexuality: 1: The Will to Knowledge - Penguin Modern Classics

'A brilliant display of fireworks,attacking the widespread and banalnotion that "in the beginning" sexualactivity was guilt-free anddelicious, being repressed and blightedonly by the gloom ofVictorianism' Spectator

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

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