Making Modern Love: Sexual Narratives and Identities in Interwar Britain

Sexuality Studies

By: Lisa Z. Sigel

Narrated by: Almond Eastland

After the Great War, British men and women grappled with their ignorance about sexuality and desire. Seeking advice and information from doctors, magazines, and each other, they wrote tens of thousands of letters about themselves as sexual subjects. In these letters, they disclosed their uncertainties, their behaviors, and the role of sexuality in their lives. Their fascinating narratives tell how people sought to unleash their imaginations and fashion new identities.

Making Modern Love shows how readers embraced popular media self-help books, fetish magazines, and advice columns as a source of information about sexuality and a means for telling their own stories. From longings for transcendent marital union to fantasies of fetish wear, cross-dressing, and whipping, men and women revealed a surprising range of desires and behaviors (queer and otherwise) that have been largely disregarded until now.

©2012 Temple University-Of The Commonwealth System of Higher Education (P)2019 Redwood Audiobooks

Time well spent

A well written book that covers various subjects, some of which I wasn’t aware of, mainly how the influence of the wars that confronted Britain during that time period played a role in the sexual identities of its people.
Certain chapters made me feel uncomfortable due to the explicit details that I won’t mention here, suffice to say that it’s not my cup of tea.
The performance by Miss Eastland was excellent and professional.
I can’t say that I would recommend this book as it has its own niche and would appeal to a selective audience. Infotainment it is not, but to someone who is looking in as a outsider with an open mind will find it well worth the purchase.

Interesting

Content is a bit dry. Still good enough to keep me listening. Narration is great and that helped a lot.