The Old Regime Police Blotter II

Sodomites, Tribads and "Crimes Against Nature"

In Pre-Revolutionary France, sodomy (in all its different meanings) was, in theory, a capital crime, whether practiced between men (sodomites), women (tribads), heterosexual couples or (since it included masturbation) alone. In practice, most sodomy cases involved men, though this collection includes two legal cases involving women with a "monstrous attachment" to their own sex and a general glance at "unnatural" practices between heterosexuals. In some famous cases - Chausson and Fabri, Deschauffours, Pascal, etc. - the men were indeed burned at the stake, though most (not all) of these cases also involved crimes of violence. But more often, those arrested were exiled,locked up or... sent to a regiment. This second volume of the Old Regime Police Blotter - a series of period sourcebooks - presents a number of these cases, including, for the first time in English, most of the trial transcripts for the Chausson and Deschauffours cases and extensive material from the abbé Desfontaines' case (which briefly involved Voltaire), as well as an overview of Old Regime law on this subject and a look at some of the applicable slang. A rich parade of characters - some sordid, some admirable, some a touch comic - appears in this material, as well as a great deal of very human drama.