The Undergrowth of Literature

by Gillian Freeman, David Stafford-Clarke (Foreword)

1969. Reprinted. 220 pages. Illustrated paper cover. Contains black and white illustrations. Pages and binding are presentable with no major defects. Minor issues present such as mild cracking, inscriptions, inserts, light foxing, tanning and thumb marking. Overall a good condition item. Paper cover has mild edge wear with light rubbing and creasing. Some light marking and tanning.

Genres: Nonfiction

220 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1967

About the author

Born in London, daughter of Dr. Jack Freeman and his wife, she graduated in English Language and Literature from the University of Reading in 1951. She married Edward Thorpe, novelist and ballet critic of the Evening Standard, in 1955. They have two daughters. One of her best known books was the 1961 novel The Leather Boys (published under the pseudonym Eliot George, a reference to the writer George Eliot), a story of a gay relationship between two young working-class men, later turned into a film for which she wrote the screenplay, this time under her own name. The novel was commissioned by the publisher Anthony Blond, who wanted a story about a "Romeo and Romeo in the South London suburbs". Her non-fiction book The Undergrowth of Literature (1967), was a pioneering study of pornography. In 1979, on another commission from Blond, she wrote a fictional diary, Nazi Lady: The Diaries of Elisabeth von Stahlenberg, 1938–48; Freeman's authorship was not at first revealed and many readers took it to be genuine. Her most recent book is But Nobody Lives in Bloomsbury (2006), a fictional study of the Bloomsbury Group.

Reviews

[Tim Pendry · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an intriguing bit of history, both because it was written in the mid-1960s when sexual liberty was under discussion openly for the first time in decades and because of the subject matter - the types of pornographic literature available at the time.

The inclusion of women's magazines from a feminist perspective and Marvel Comics from a fetishistic perspective make it a true curiousity. It is not a great book. It is of its time. But it is useful to read because it shows how much we have changed since then. Intellectuals cannot now be quite so po-faced and mildly patronising about other people's sexual fantasies.

The violence implicit , often explicit, in the underground pornography marketed to a generation of males damaged by war and social disruption has become more ritualised and mainstream. We seem to have become nicer. The book works as an argument against suppression of vice.

Personally, I liked finding out how boringly 'normal' I am (despite best efforts to be more interesting) and the relevant chapter renewed sympathy for trans-gender people who went through more hell even than the gay and lesbian communities during the dark days from Queen Victoria to the 1950s. One for the library and for reference purposes.

[rania · Rating 3 out of 5]

not what i was expecting (thought it would be about sex in classic lit, not on erotica) but still interesting !

the attitudes towards trans people rlly stood out to me - both reassuring and frustrating how kind they were back then despite their lack of vocab, and yet now we’re somehow in the opposite situation - all the words and none of the understanding…

i do always like it when non fiction books have pictures in the middle hehe