Olympia, by Édouard Manet, 1863. Musée d’Orsay, Paris, France.

Eros

Volume II, Number 1 | winter 2009

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The Toilette of Venus, by François Boucher, 1751.

Preamble

Transits of Venus

By Lewis H. Lapham

The commodification of sex and love has shaped our attitudes toward both over the past half century, but eros is more than just dollars and cents.

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The Love Letter, by Jean Honoré Fragonard, early 1770s.

Up Close and Personal

By Noga Arikha

The evolution of personal ads, from the newspaper to the social network.

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Map

The Grand Tour

Sexual hazards from around the world and throughout time.

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c. 1365 | Shiraz

The Mead of Heaven

Hafez enjoys the pleasure of wine.More

1528 | London

Royal Ardor

Henry VIII sends a love letter. More

c. 1250 | Konya

Not Like This Before

Like this. More

Charts & Graphs

Impotent Prose

Winners of the Bad Sex in Fiction Award.

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Photograph of American writer Francine Prose.

Black and white photograph of Colombian novelist Gabriel García Márquez.

Color portrait of the Italian writer and libertine Giacomo Casanova.

Color photograph of American novelist and short-story writer Richard Wright.

English writer Geoffrey Chaucer.

The best moment of love is when the lover leaves in the taxi.

—Michel Foucault, c. 1982

Molière & Albert Camus

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Lapham’sDaily

Roundtable

Artful Dabs of Cheese and Unlimited Caviar

By Sharon Hudgins

What to eat—and avoid—on the Trans-Siberian Railway. More

DÉjÀ Vu

Love Is Dead

2018:

Woman announces she is divorcing her pirate ghost husband.

1926:

Man sues wife for adultery with a ghost.

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The World in Time

Joseph J. Ellis

Lewis H. Lapham talks with Joseph J. Ellis, author of American Dialogue: The Founders and Us. More

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