Nameless Offences
eBook - PDF

Nameless Offences

Homosexual Desire in the 19th Century

  1. 288 pages
  2. English
  3. PDF
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF

Nameless Offences

Homosexual Desire in the 19th Century

About this book

What did the Victorians know about desire between men? Was it really 'the love that dare not speak its name'? Nameless Offences argues that even before Oscar Wilde and the rise of sexual science there was an open, public and concerted discussion of same-sex desire that went to the heart of Victorian notions of masculinity, civil society, class and identity.
How did homosexuality come to be known as a 'secret vice', consigned to a secret place - the closet - when contemporaries regularly described its existence as widespread, threatening and even notorious? Nameless Offences asks where the closet came from and how the English learned to describe that which was 'nameless' and indescribable in this way.
This groundbreaking book offers the definitive portrait of male homosexuality in the nineteenth century and includes many perceptive insights into what it reveals about the interaction between public and private morality which lay at the heart of Victorian England. 'Nameless Offences is a cogently argued and well-written book which contributes importantly to our understanding of the history of the legal regulation of sexual behavior between men in the 19th century…I cannot do justice...to the richness of his historical narrative…[he] has found gems of narrative detail…and woven them into a persuasive analysis.' - Morris B. Kaplan, Associate Professor of Philosophy, State University of New York

Frequently asked questions

Yes, you can cancel anytime from the Subscription tab in your account settings on the Perlego website. Your subscription will stay active until the end of your current billing period. Learn how to cancel your subscription.
At the moment all of our mobile-responsive ePub books are available to download via the app. Most of our PDFs are also available to download and we're working on making the final remaining ones downloadable now. Learn more here.
Perlego offers two plans: Essential and Complete
  • Essential is ideal for learners and professionals who enjoy exploring a wide range of subjects. Access the Essential Library with 800,000+ trusted titles and best-sellers across business, personal growth, and the humanities. Includes unlimited reading time and Standard Read Aloud voice.
  • Complete: Perfect for advanced learners and researchers needing full, unrestricted access. Unlock 1.4M+ books across hundreds of subjects, including academic and specialized titles. The Complete Plan also includes advanced features like Premium Read Aloud and Research Assistant.
Both plans are available with monthly, semester, or annual billing cycles.
We are an online textbook subscription service, where you can get access to an entire online library for less than the price of a single book per month. With over 1 million books across 1000+ topics, we’ve got you covered! Learn more here.
Look out for the read-aloud symbol on your next book to see if you can listen to it. The read-aloud tool reads text aloud for you, highlighting the text as it is being read. You can pause it, speed it up and slow it down. Learn more here.
Yes! You can use the Perlego app on both iOS or Android devices to read anytime, anywhere — even offline. Perfect for commutes or when you’re on the go.
Please note we cannot support devices running on iOS 13 and Android 7 or earlier. Learn more about using the app.
Yes, you can access Nameless Offences by H. G. Cocks in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in History & 19th Century History. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Information

Publisher
I.B. Tauris
Year
2003
Print ISBN
9781860648908
eBook ISBN
9780857718440
Edition
1
Topic
History
Index
History

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Contents
  3. Maps, tables and figures
  4. Acknowledgements
  5. Introduction Histories of the Closet?
  6. Part I
  7. 1 Prosecuting the ā€˜Unnatural Crime’
  8. 2 Policing Sodomy in the Nineteenth-Century City
  9. Part II
  10. 3 Reading the Sodomite
  11. 4 Respectability, Blackmail and the Transformation of Scandal
  12. Part III
  13. 5 ā€˜A Strange and Indescribable Feeling’
  14. Conclusion
  15. Notes
  16. Select Bibliography
  17. Index