Sodom, or The Gentleman Instructed. A Comedy.

[Rochester, John Wilmot, Earl of] E. of R.

Published by Hague [London], Printed in the Year 1000000 [Printed around 1725]. Here: Facsimile reprint. Berlin, Antiquariat Ars Amandi, no date.

About this Item

Small 8vo. 1p, 43 numbered pages, 1 p. Handbound in calf with title on front plate. One of 400 numbered copies. Reprinted after the only one exististing copy. When this was auctioned by Sotheby's, the auction house talked of "the first printed pornography on English literature, a unique copy of the quintessence of debauchery"; the press just named it the "world's oldest porn". Sodom, fashioned as a 'closet drama', centres on a decision made by the lustful King of Sodom and its dire consequences. Bored by the "drudgery" of normal sex, the king decides to "set the nation free" by allowing "buggary" to be "us'd thro' all the land". Then follows scenes in which acts of copulation, buggary, masturbation, fellatio and bestiality are enacted, recalled or prepared for "of stage". Courtiers, ladies-in-waiting, and especially Queen Cuntigratia, contrive to find satisfaction with different partners and enthuse on the joys of sexual diversity. "Although in every sense, and almost every line, pornographic, the play has two primary purposes, one literary, the other political. One aim is the production of a hilarious burlesque, the other to satirise uncompromisingly the court of Charles II and the notoriously lecherous king himself" (Peter Beal). By the 19th century, only two copies survived. The one was destroyed in the 1830s by the executors of the great book collector, Richard Heber, horrified at finding it in his library. The unique copy now accessible in this carefully done reprint. --------- |Traduction française sur demande.|. Seller Inventory # 5458A

Bibliographic Details

Title: Sodom, or The Gentleman Instructed. A Comedy.

Publisher: Hague [London], Printed in the Year 1000000 [Printed around 1725]. Here: Facsimile reprint. Berlin, Antiquariat Ars Amandi, no date.