<DIV><DIV><DIV><P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 200%">During the Edo period in eighteenth-century Japan, erotic paintings and prints known today as <I>shunga </I>were popular among both men and women. Yet,  prior to Tim Screech's definitive study, <I>Sex and the Floating World</I>, no one had attempted to situate these overtly sexual images within the contexts of the sexual, gender, or class tensions of the time.</p><P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in; LINE-HEIGHT: 200%"> Newly revised and expanded, this second edition of <I>Sex and the Floating World</I> examines how and why these images were made and used. Along the way, Screech illuminates a provocative world of sexual fantasy in Edo Japan.</P><P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in; LINE-HEIGHT: 200%">'With concern, proportion, wit and a bit of levity, the author of this authoritative and invaluable contribution to scholarship has given us the book for which we have long waited.”—<I>Japan</I><I> Times</I></P><P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in; LINE-HEIGHT: 200%">“Screech provides a fascinating and informative introduction to the social and sexual habits of pre-modern Japan, copiously illustrated and full of witty anecdotes as well as solid scholarly research. The ideal bedtime read?”—<I>Insight Japan</I></P></DIV></DIV></DIV>