This wide-ranging reference volume offers an in-depth survey of erotic themes through centuries of literary history.

Representing cultures around the world and spanning from ancient times to the twentieth century, this A-to-Z guide explores one of the most universal and enduring themes in literature. Entries range from Ovid’s Ars amatoria, second-century Gnosticism, and ninth-century Arabian poets, all the way up to the explicit novels published in Paris in the 1960s.

As Harry E. Wedeck explains in his introduction, a culture’s artistic and literary depictions of eroticism reveal a great deal about their way of life. In Dictionary of Erotic Literature, Wedeck draws on this endlessly vast topic to present an illustrative sampling of authors, written works, and terminology that will be of value to any student of literature or cultural history.