Effeminate Years: Literature, Politics, and Aesthetics in Mid-Eighteenth-Century Britain

Kavanagh (Univ. of Kent, UK) presents an investigation into the twilight world of gender/sex-fluid men--referred to as, among other monikers, sodomites, catamites, and mollies--during Britain's Georgian period. Kavanagh's critical examination of the works of Charles Churchill, Edmund Burke, John Wilkes, and others illuminates the role effeminacy played in shaping discourse of the day. Kavanagh's embedded thesis is that fluid identity and outré sexual practices of this period challenged the era's sensibilities and set the precedent for current efforts to broaden gender and sexual categorizations. In this regard, Kavanagh's book complements extant research on the subject. Kavanagh's obvious authority on the subject matter qualifies him for inclusion among the field's most credible scholars.... [T]he book's value to English history, literary studies, and gender and sexuality studies stands unquestioned. Summing Up: Essential. Researchers and faculty.--CHOICE