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The secret history of the orgasm, from its evolutionary beginnings to its current iconic status. When, in 1558, an anatomist called Columbus discovered the clitoris, a whole new world of sexual pleasure opened up and it was a steady progress climaxing in the present Golden Age. That at least is the official history. Here Jonathan Margolis produces evidence to show that in Europe and America progress was extremely slow while in other places the secrets of the orgasm created almost unimaginable worlds of pleasure. The book draws on orgasm's biology, anthropology, psychology, technology and sociology. Revered in ancient societies, by the 13th century, modesty ruled: St. Francis of Assisi would throw himself into a thorn bush to disguise unwanted erections and avoid all possibility of orgasm. Victorians still regarded the female orgasm as a form of hysteria and, in the 19th century, women were strongly advised against riding bicycles for this reason. Later, in Edwardian Britain and America, vibrators were routinely advertised in respectable women's magazines as a form of handy household appliance. Margolis considers the effect of the Pill, feminism and Viagra on the state of the orgasm in the 21st century. Packed with fascinating facts and insights, Margolis's mischievous history of the orgasm will both amuse and inform.