Smut or enlightenment?
Sex handbooks and marriage manuals by medical doctors in 19th century Sweden.

Pia Laskar, Ph.D. student, Dept. of History of Ideas, University of Stockholm.

At the seminar The Book in History, I will present some preliminary conclusions and questions from my survey on the spread of sex handbooks in 19th century Sweden. The survey is a part of my dissertation with the preliminary title "Gender, Sexuality and Pleasure in Sex Handbooks 1830 - 1930".

During the 19th century, sex handbooks and marriage manuals were distributed in a number of different ways: through the established bookstores with customers from the bourgeoisie, via house-to-house peddling, and at urban and rural marketplaces. They were also sold outside garrisons and factories. They were thereby made available to all levels of society, from the middle and upper classes to soldiers and industrial workers. The spread in potential readership from the different socioeconomical groups of society increased during the 19th century as a consequence of the modernisation process - the extension of the railway system, more bookstores, improved illumination, increased industrialisation, increased consumption, urbanisation and schooling.

In Sweden, the number of publications in the sex handbook genre increased steadily during the 19th century. Most were translations from German. A comparison with other literary genres, including popular science (also dominated by translated German works), shows that the increase follows the general increase in book publishing. It is therefore still an open question whether the increasing number of sex handbooks reflects a change in attitude towards greater openness in sexual matters.

During the greater part of 19th century, the sexhandbooks and marriage manuals I have studied link descriptions on reproductive sexuality and pleasure in explicit formulations. In contrast to the fiction of the time - which today stands out as harmless in perspective of sexual offence - no legal action was ever taken against the sex handbooks. Why this discrepancy? One reason could be the insufficient formulation of § 3:13, the paragraph concerning obscene literature in the constitution. On some occasions (1850 and 1890) fiction escaped legal action when published in first edition, but not when it later showed up in offprints in calendars or magazines of morally impure character. Was it the context that exerted an influence on public authority to take on action, and if so, what pretext was used? Sex handbooks were also published as offprints and distributed in 'sealed packets' together with, for example, 'French photos'. In such packaging, one might suspect the sex handbooks were meant to be read as pornography. Yet they escaped prosecution. Did the genre of popular science protect the texts from legal action?