Bradford K. Mudge 
When Flesh Becomes Word 
An Anthology of Early Eighteenth-Century Libertine Literature

When Flesh Becomes Word collects nine different examples of British libertine literature that appeared before 1750. Three of these—The School of Venus (1680), Venus in the Cloister (1725), and A Dialogue Between a Married Lady and a Maid (1740)—are famous "whore dialogues, " dramatic conversations between an older, experienced woman and a younger, inexperienced maid. Previously unavailable to the modern reader, these dialogues combine sex education, medical folklore, and erotic literature in a decidedly proto-pornographic form. This edition presents other important examples of libertine literature, including bawdy poetry, a salacious medical treatise, an irreverent travelogue, and a criminal biography. The combination of both popular and influential texts presented in this edition provides an accessible introduction to the variety of material available to eighteenth-century readers before the publication of John Cleland’s Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure in 1749.