In 1883, sexual techniques were entertainment for dirty old men with thick wallets. At least, this is what the first edition of the famous "Kamasutra" in the Western world would suggest.
This edition was initiated by the famous traveler and scandalist Sir Richard Burton. The title page suggested that he was one of the translators, although in fact the bulk of the work was done by two underpaid Indians - a low-ranking official and a student. And it should be emphasized that it was only thanks to them, and only 133 years ago, that Europe learned about an unusual love treaty. Even specialists had not heard of this book before.
A copy of the first issue of the Kamasutra put up for action by Christie's. It was sold in 2012 for over $ 17,000!
The work was published in the form of seven notebooks, sent one by one to a narrow group of subscribers. The recipients were only two hundred and fifty, and each copy contained the annotation: For private circulation only . Both the limited edition and the special formula protected the publisher from being accused of sowing scandal. Under applicable law, pornographic content was allowed in the UK as long as it did not enter the public circulation.
Exotic porn or academic work?
There is no doubt about the fact that Burton saw exactly exotic porn in Kamasutra. He provided the work with a series of footnotes, often balancing on the verge of decency or exceeding that boundary.
Richard Francis Burton. The man to whom we owe the Kamasutra… and a clever manipulator.
In the afterword, he emphasized that in this rare treatise, young readers would find lessons that they might otherwise never learn. Or, absorb them when it is too late to put them into practice.
Historian Ben Grant confirms that it was about presenting "Kamasutra" as a unique, collectible piece of eroticism. Burton even edited the text so that it would suit the audience as much as possible. Women in its edition were much more submissive and subordinate to men than in the original. Promiscuous sex was shown as the activity of savages from a distant country, and the entire apparatus accompanying the original was intended to further "increase" the sensation.
Travels for the poor, exclusive to the elite
Burton knew his subscribers would not pay for anything more balanced and airtight. After all, the one-volume version he printed in 1884 cost two pounds and ten shillings. That is a trifle of about one thousand three hundred zlotys today.
In the following years, the western world was flooded with a wave of cheap, pirated editions of the book. They functioned in the underground circulation, treated in the same way as the first pornographic films. In the United States, you could be arrested not only for publishing the Kamasutra, but also for trying to send a copy of it by mail. This was still the case even in the late 1920s.
Polish Kamasutra… for everyone
Anglo-Saxon lovers of eroticism could only dream of the freedom enjoyed by the inhabitants of Poland - the homeland of the first sexual revolution. Supposedly Tadeusz Boy-Żeleński (and eulogists of sexual liberation like him) criticized the moral backwardness of the Republic of Poland, but in this particular respect we were ahead of the rest of the world by several lengths.
This is how the pre-war advertisements for Kamasutra looked like in Polish books and newspapers.
In Poland, "Kamasutra" went into public circulation almost immediately after regaining independence. The first edition appeared as early as 1922. The second - in 1933. Both versions were shortened and heavily underdeveloped, but anyone could go to the bookstore and get their own copy.
Completely overt advertisements encouraged: Original Hindu laws regulating erotic intercourse in marital intercourse and public prostitution! Price - only five zlotys.
Sources:
The article was based on the literature and materials collected by the author during the work on the book The age of hypocrisy. Sex and erotica in pre-war Poland . Selected bibliographic items below:
- Jay A. Gertzman, Bookleggers and Smuthounds:The Trade in Erotica 1920-1940 , University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011.
- Ben Grant, Postcolonialism , Psychoanalysis and Burton. Power Play of Empire , Routledge, New York-London 2008.
- Kāmasūtram Vātsyāyany. Indian ars amatoria with a complete comment , Kultura i Sztuka, Lviv 1922.
- James McConnachie, The Book of Love:In search of the Kamasutra , Atlantic Books, London 2007.
- Vātsyāyana, Kamasutra. Original text of Hindu religious laws regulating erotic intercourse in marriage and public prostitution , Księgopol, Warsaw 1933.
Converting the pound value based on:Lawrence H. Officer, Samuel H. Williamson, Purchasing Power of British Pounds from 1270 to Present , in:"MeasuringWorth.com". An example of a Kamasutra advertisement comes from the book:M. Gabriow, The Cult of the Hymen , Księgopol, Warsaw 1934.