Public Affairs and Private Eyes: Mapping the Trade in Scandalous Books in Late Eighteenth- Century London | Nathan Garvey

Summary: To Deprave and Corrupt: Forbidden, Hidden and Censored Books | Nathan Garvey Over the last thirty years, the literature of sexual scandal has often been at the centre of scholarly re-readings of Enlightenment history, literature and politics. Yet, in the context of British book history at least, our understanding of the trade in erotica and scandalous books in the later eighteenth-century remains limited. While much attention has been devoted to aspects of this literature such as its intersection with radical politics and its significance for the history of sexuality, the question of how the trade in these books related to wider print cultures has been neglected. The common assumption that this was a ‘secret’ trade and therefore unrecoverable is not entirely borne out; for the most part, the publishing history of late eighteenth-century British erotica remains ‘hidden’ not because it was conducted in a particularly clandestine fashion, but because it has been under-researched. This paper will undertake a preliminary ‘mapping’ of the trade in scandalous books in London, ca.1770-1800. It will look at some of the landmark publications in the field, including the emergence of influential periodicals devoted to erotica and scandal, The Covent Garden Magazine (1772-1775), The Rambler’s Magazine (1783-1791), The Bon Ton Magazine (1791- 1795), and The Ranger’s Magazine (1795). I will focus on the careers of several specialist publishers of erotica, outlining their general publishing and business activities and their trade networks. The geographical location(s) of the trade within London will be illustrated with particular reference to Richard Horwood’s Plan of London and Westminster (1792-1799). The paper will also chart, as far as possible, the changing reception of scandalous books in England during the French Revolution, and detail the increasingly urgent efforts to stamp out the trade by tightening, and policing, legal definitions of obscenity and libel.