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O: The Intimate History of the Orgasm (Hardcover)

~ Jonathan Margolis (Author) "The first act of sexual intercourse, the earliest example of two like creatures coming into intimate contact for the purpose of combining their DNA to..." (more)
Key Phrases: circumcised women, orgasmic pleasure, female orgasm, Fanny Hill, New York, Desmond Morris (more...)
4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

According to the World Health Organization, more than a hundred million acts of sexual intercourse take place every day. In this immensely entertaining and informative book, Margolis lays out in glorious and rich detail the widely varied human experience of sex beyond the simple and necessary act of reproduction. From straightforward biology of the human body to the mind-bendingly various cultural norms and practices within human civilizations past and present, Margolis presents a beautifully written, deep-focus view of human sexual pursuit, gratification and frustration. According to Margolis, the orgasm has been cherished, misunderstood, feared and pandered to throughout the ages. He cites anthropological research indicating that while the innate human tendency toward "pair bonding" holds true, sex and pleasure were once free and synonymous. Orgasm, with its white-hot physical pleasure and consciousness-altering effects, was worshiped in many developing cultures. As civilizations became more sophisticated about reproduction and, sadly, property rights, orgasms and who gives, receives and enjoys them, became increasingly regulated. In the West particularly, the female orgasm—always a mystery to the mostly patriarchal power structure—was increasingly seen as a threat to the advancement of social development. In the modern age, science has taken a front seat in the understanding and exploration of this most basic of human experience, with mixed results. While women have made strides toward orgasmic equality, in Margolis's view there is still some way to go. Neither leering nor squeamish, Margolis has created a fresh, compelling work guaranteed to ignite much late-night conversation.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


From Booklist

Passing briefly over the scientific facts-- how long orgasms last in various species, what makes them happen, what keeps them from happening--Margolis devotes himself to the social history of the ways and means of orgasm. Some of this is purely speculation; for example, about the likelihood of oral sex in prehistory he opines, "It is beyond contention, surely, that at some stage man realized that the mouth on a face bears a distinct similarity to the mouth of a vagina, and then had a hunch that it might be interesting for the woman to apply her mouth to his penis, and vice versa." Is it beyond contention that it was inevitably men who made such a discovery? Sociobiology is invoked in Margolis' discussion of what masturbation aids tell us about human sexuality, and medieval literature is mined for what it has to say about Celtic homosexuality. Indeed, there is no discipline that Margolis doesn't employ to explore his fascinating subject. And his breezy, sophisticated writing doesn't hurt, either. Patricia Monaghan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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Product Details

  • Hardcover: 416 pages
  • Publisher: Grove Press (September 30, 2004)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0802117864
  • ISBN-13: 978-0802117861
  • Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.8 x 1.5 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,029,002 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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First Sentence:
The first act of sexual intercourse, the earliest example of two like creatures coming into intimate contact for the purpose of combining their DNA to create a new creature, probably took place about one and a half billion years BC, at a location deep in the primordial oceans. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
circumcised women, orgasmic pleasure, female orgasm, female masturbation, female ejaculation, mutual orgasm, penetrative sex, simultaneous orgasm, vaginal orgasm
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Fanny Hill, New York, Desmond Morris, Naomi Wolf, Ancient Chinese, Lionel Tiger, Shere Hite, Ancient Greek, Helen Fisher, Marie Antoinette, Marie Stopes, Middle Ages, Ancient India, Lady Chatterley, Sexual Behavior, Ancient Greece, Burgo Partridge, Germaine Greer, Havelock Ellis, Married Love, Donald Symons, Margaret Sanger, Middle Eastern, Old Testament, Professor of Anthropology
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8 Reviews
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4.4 out of 5 stars (8 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Amusing, but not to be trusted, September 30, 2007
By Dude in Hammock "CPR" (Barcelona, Spain) - See all my reviews
This review is from: O: The Intimate History of the Orgasm (Paperback)
I'm very well-versed in this material, as I'm in the process of writing a book that deals with much of it. So I was looking forward to reading what promised to be a well-written account of such juicy material, when most are dry as ash. I was pleased to find that the writing is lively and surprising, but like other reviewers, I was dismayed by the extremely poor editing and even more, by the plethora of mistaken "facts." Just the first few pages provide more than enough examples. On the first page of the preface, Margolis asserts that "Men and women have practiced procreative sexual intercourse for approximately a hundred thousand years." What's he talking about? We've obviously been having sexual intercourse as long as we've existed -- and though there is debate, our species is thought to have existed far longer than one hundred thousand years.

But even more disturbing is the author's ignorance of very basic information concerning human sexuality. On page 1, he claims that, "the first sexual act by which two like creatures sought intimate contact expressly to give one another physical and emotional pleasure... may well not have taken place until some time in the twentieth century AD, most likely at a location in Western Europe or North America." This is simply astoundingly wrong, not to mention racist as all get-out. For this to be true, nobody in hundreds of centuries ever had sex to give each other pleasure -- no hunter gatherers (most of whom do not equate sex with reproduction), nobody in India (where the Kama Sutra was written thousands of years ago, detailing how to give and receive sexual pleasure), nobody in China (where the first known sex manuals were written even before the Kama Sutra), etc. Just silly.

Elsewhere, he claims bonobos are monogamous (absurd: the first thing anyone learns about bonobos is precisely that they are NOT monogamous), women are the only females who have orgasm (no serious biologist has argued that for decades), that the Ferrari Testarossa refers to [...] (it actually means "red head" in Italian, referring to the engine head that was red).... All these examples are just from the first chapter!

It's a dangerous book, because it's so full of "amazing facts" that you're tempted to believe them (and repeat them to others). The problem is, this author (and editor) is not to be trusted. The book is slapped together without care for editing or factual accuracy. It's a shame, because the quality of the writing is far above the quality of the scholarship.
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22 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Searching for the Big O, January 8, 2005
All,
I don't know if I should confess this but I will.

I have been searching for a book that will let me understand, train me, motivate me, and assist me in achieving at least one orgasm in my lifetime.

I must also confess that I have had many lovers. Some good and some very bad. None of them ever succeeded in giving me the big O as I have heard it being called.

What does all this have to do with this book? I will answer that now please.

This book explained how a woman builds up to an orgasm. The author does an outstanding job of explaining the anatomy and nerve endings, what each part does, and how they must come together as a team to all a woman to loose it in a out of control mind numbing, legs shaking, spastic laden orgasm.

The author was successful with me in allowing me to have my first orgasm since the day I was born 68 years ago. It was a big one, pent up, and a wet one galore!

I highly recommend this book to any female between the ages of 21 and 93.

Signed,
Erica Phillips
(Happy, Very Happy in Decatur)
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23 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Eclectic, Breezy, Funny and Compelling, October 20, 2004
As a sex therapist and author, it's rare that I'm both entertained and informed by a book about human sexuality. Jonathan Margolis' survey of the history of the orgasm offers a fresh discovery, and a laugh, on every page. Well-written, opinionated and contentious, I don't agree with all of his observations, but his research is meticulous and stands up well to debate. Margolis has done a great service to students of sexuality, as well as to the layman with this thorough, fascinating book. Liberating the orgasm from the discourses of sexual politics, this important work lets us learn, and, more importantly, laugh a little at sex. At the outset, Margolis states that the World Health Organization estimates that at least a hundred million acts of intercourse are engaged in per day, "and they can't all be bad." With a laugh or a raise of the eyebrows on every page, as well as the frequent "ejaculation" -- 'well what do you know -- this book is probably more consistently satisfying than sex! I can't recommend it enough.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars great book on the social construction of sex
O: The Intimate History of the Orgasm
this is a great book, relatively easy to read and absolutely asks the questions that got me thinking, and talking about how we as a... Read more
Published 13 months ago by Kitty

5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting and complete coverage of the subject!
I found this book to be an exhaustive study of the history of the orgasm and of various factors that shaped the orgasm perception throughout the history in various parts of the... Read more
Published on April 9, 2005 by Vahania63

5.0 out of 5 stars Smart, entertaining, stimulating
A very enjoyable and well-researched book, serious but not too serious, excellent writing and pretty hot stuff in parts, too! Highly recommended.
Published on January 22, 2005 by Glyn Jones

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting & informative, but the editor should be flogged
This book contains some fascinating history. Most helpfully, it presents the astonishing diversity of sexual practices around the world and throughout history - in a way that... Read more
Published on December 28, 2004 by David Bartram

4.0 out of 5 stars A magnificent and much welcome book
I didn't have high hopes of this book after reading a spiteful and silly review by Thomas Lacquer, somebody whose work I have quite admired in the past. Read more
Published on December 4, 2004 by Frank Johnson

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