Unprofessional Tales


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Unspeakable


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The sexual exploitation of children by adults has a long, fraught history. Yet how cultures have reacted to it is shaped by a range of forces, beliefs, and norms, like any other social phenomenon. Changes in how Anglo-American culture has understood intergenerational sex can be seen with startling clarity in the life of British writer Norman Douglas (1868–1952), who was a beloved and popular author, a friend of luminaries like Graham Greene, Aldous Huxley, and D.H. Lawrence, and an unrepentant and uncloseted pederast. Rachel Hope Cleves’s careful study opens a window onto the social history of intergenerational sex in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, revealing how charisma, celebrity, and contemporary standards protected Douglas from punishment—until they didn’t. Unspeakable approaches Douglas as neither monster nor literary hero, but as a man who participated in an exploitative sexual subculture that was tolerated in ways we may find hard to understand. Using letters, diaries, memoirs, police records, novels, and photographs—including sources by the children Douglas encountered—Cleves identifies the cultural practices that structured pedophilic behaviors in England, Italy, and other places Douglas favored. Her book delineates how approaches to adult-child sex have changed over time and offers insight into how society can confront similar scandals today, celebrity and otherwise.




The Collected Letters of Joseph Conrad


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The period covered by the third volume of a projected eight marks the years when Conrad stood at the height of his powers. It was during this time that he completed Nostromo and The Secret Agent. Yet, it was also a time of great personal unhappiness: his plans for leisurely, contemplative work were constantly interrupted by dangerous illnesses in the family, his own bad health, financial worries, and the pleas of editors desperate for copy. Conrad maintained his correspondence with old friends such as Galsworthy, Wells, and Ford, and developed a number of new friendships. This is also the period when Conrad became absorbed in political fiction, reflected in an intriguing series of letters dealing with Poland, the Congo, Latin America, and censorship. As always, the letters to his agent J.B. Pinker provide a detailed--and largely unpublished--account of the writer's monthly and weekly plans and literary commitments.







The Bookman


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The Spectator


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A weekly review of politics, literature, theology, and art.




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