EAST, THE WEST, AND SEX, THE - A HISTORY OF EROTIC ENCOUNTERS

A rich and seductive narrative of the powerful erotic pull the East has always had for the West - a pervasive yet often ignored aspect of their long historical relationship - and a deep exploration of the intimate connection between sex and power. Richard Bernstein defines the East widely - northern Africa, the Middle East, Asia, the Pacific Islands - and frames it as a place where sexual pleasure was not commonly associated with sin, as it was in the West, and where a different sexual culture offered the Western men who came as conquerers and traders thrilling but morally ambiguous opportunities that were mostly unavailable at home. Bernstein maps this erotic history through a chronology of notable personalities. Here are some of Europe’s greatest literary personalities and explorers: Marco Polo, writing on the harem of Kublai Khan; Gustave Flaubert, describing his dalliances with Egyptian prostitutes (and the diseases he picked up along the way); and Richard Francis Burton, adventurer, lothario, anthropologis - and translator of The Arabian Nights.