{"product_id":"unspeakable-book-rachel-hope-cleves-9780226733531","title":"Unspeakable","description":"The sexual exploitation of children by adults has a long, fraught history. Yet how cultures have reacted to it is shaped by a range of forces, beliefs, and norms, like any other social phenomenon. Changes in how Anglo-American culture has understood intergenerational sex can be seen with startling clarity in the life of British writer Norman Douglas (1868-1952), who was both a beloved and popular author, a friend of luminaries like Graham Greene, Aldous Huxley, and D.H. Lawrence--as well as an unrepentant and uncloseted pederast. Rachel Hope Cleves's careful study opens a window onto the social history of intergenerational sex in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, revealing how charisma, celebrity, and contemporary standards protected Douglas from punishment--until they didn't.  Unspeakable approaches Douglas as neither monster nor literary hero, but as a man who participated in an exploitative sexual subculture that was tolerated in ways we may find hard to understand. Using letters, diaries, memoirs, police records, novels, and photographs--including sources by the children Douglas encountered--Cleves identifies the cultural practices that structured pedophilic behaviors in England, Italy, and other places Douglas favored. The resulting book delineates just how approaches to adult-child sex have changed over time, even as it offers insight into how society can confront today's scandals, celebrity and otherwise.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49740135170321,"sku":"NGR9780226733531","price":31.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50268375056657,"sku":"CIN022673353XG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/022673353X.jpg?v=1751037752","url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/en-gb\/products\/unspeakable-book-rachel-hope-cleves-9780226733531","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}