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The Toilette of Venus (detail), 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.

More

The Circle of the Lustful: Francesca Da Rimini, illustration to Dante’s Divine Comedy, by William Blake, 1824–27.

Essay

Hell House

By Jeff Sharlet

Young Christians encounter sex, violence, and the eros of evangelicalism in an East Texas hell house.

More

Black and white photograph of men and women seated on stone steps.

Essay

Fear and Loathing

By Dagmar Herzog

How the Kinsey Reports forever altered America’s sexual landscape—and not for the better.

More

Venus of Urbino, by Titian, 1538.

Essay

Eros Between the Covers

By Francine Prose

A reconsideration of Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita.

More

Detail of a woman holding a bouquet and a letter and looking over her shoulder at the viewer

Essay

Up Close and Personal

By Noga Arikha

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

More

Painting of a woman and man embracing on a bed while a nude reclining woman watches.

Essay

Not About the Money

By William H. Gass

Sensuality is often mistakenly associated with prostitution and pornography, matters with which true sensual appreciation has only distant connections.

More

Empress Theodora and retinue, mosaic panel from the Basilica of San Vitale, Ravenna, Italy, sixth century.

Essay

Affairs of State

By William Rosen

How the improbable marriage of an actress, courtesan, and daughter of an animal trainer to a Byzantine emperor dramatically changed the course of European history.

More

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