Erotic Literature

Erotic literature refers to fictional or factual stories and accounts of eros, meaning passionate, romantic or sexual relationships, intended to sexually arouse readers; the term overlaps with but contrasts against erotica, which focuses more specifically on sexual feeling, and much erotic literature has historically featured erotic art illustrating the text, with satire and social criticism as other common elements. Cultural disapproval of erotic literature has long existed, but its circulation was not seen as a major problem before the invention of printing in the fifteenth century, since the cost of producing individual manuscripts limited distribution to a small group of wealthy, literate readers. Printing brought both a wider market and increasing restriction, including censorship and legal restraints on publication on grounds of obscenity, and much production of the genre became clandestine as a result.