Chastity; or, Our Secret Sins

Green cloth 12mo with beveled boards and handsome gilt-stamped title, a.e.g. 320pp + (4) ads, including one for Schreber's Pangymnastikon, a multifunctional gym apparatus. Frontis portrait. Very Good with light rubbing and mottled flecks, shallow loss at the heel. Textblock slightly shaken, but clean and crisp. Note: blotted copyright date looks like 1871, and is recorded in OCLC record for 4 holdings; but is 1874--the text references a trip “last year (1873)” and later editions state 1874 copyright. 

Sexual wisdom of the era includes humorous suggestions, like wearing flannel to irritate the skin and distract from other excitements, and caution against “Rioting in visions of nude women” (26). To young men, there are warnings about choosing a wife: “Do not select a woman with a forehead shaped like your own… Avoid a small waist as you would the plague… Shun the untidy as you would an open drain…” and “Don’t marry your cousin” (232-3).

To young women, the dangers are more pronounced. Poignant in its injection of social realism, it addresses unvarnished realities regarding sexual exploitation and the burdens of being a woman. Topics include sexually transmitted infections, contraception, abortion, the abomination of old men marrying young brides, the necessity of women's right to work, the role of consent in motherhood, and that marriage does not entitle husbands to control their wives' bodies. Lewis was adamant about the threat of corsets, but also the threat of men--that when a man offers to help a distressed young lady, he will likely exploit her for his sexual benefit; that woman's right to work is the only way to prevent that exploitation. The "Foeticide" chapter is especially sympathetic to women, largely quoting The Unwelcome Child by Henry Clarke Wright and emphasizing the husband’s culpability for not respecting his wife’s right “to say when and under what circumstances she shall assume the office of maternity.”

Though addressed to both young men and women, Chastity was especially marketed to mothers and teachers scared of tackling its taboo subjects, noting that ignorance of such matters is dangerous. He amassed a range of endorsements from respectable women and educators who attested to the book's morally correct handling of sexuality. Among a host of titles covering gypsies to digestion, it was prominently advertised in Lewis' other publications. From the first page of Dio Lewis' Nuggets: "This is the author's favorite book. In it he thinks he has reached the highest altitude of his life... There is not a delicate question concerning our sexual life which is not unreservedly discussed in this volume. Let every unmarried and every married woman and man, with this book in hand, study these vital questions."