A Short History of Smut.

The art of leaving everything on the page.

If you’ve watched Bridgerton, picked up a title from the romance section at the bookstore, or attended a viewing of Emerald Fennell's "Wuthering Heights," you’ve encountered your fair share of smut. 

Haven’t heard the term before? It’s fairly simple: Smut refers to a work of fiction (typically written) that is sexual in nature. Per Urban Dictionary, smut is most often, though not always, geared towards women (who are 84 percent of romance book readers, too). 

Smut is a kind of erotica: a type of literature or art made intending to arouse the reader or viewer, per Dictionary.com. But there is some debate on the internet about what can be considered smut versus erotic romance—where is the line drawn? One writer lays it out: erotic romance typically involves sex, among involved plotlines and emotional arcs. Smut may or may not have similarly developed storylines, but it also has one clear differentiator: It devotes much more time and description to sex scenes. In a smutty book, there are no “off stage” sex scenes.  

Not all romance stories are smut, and whether or not a writer or reader considers them so can ultimately come down to personal opinion. But at the end of the day, when whatever you’re reading doesn’t shy away from describing a sexual encounter—no detail spared—you can pretty safely consider it smut.

Smut is pretty much as old as civilization, too—here’s a quick history of the art form made to turn you on.

Smut in Ancient Times

Written by a Greek novelist in the second century A.D., Daphnis and Chloe is a love story—one that (shockingly, considering the trajectory of most Ancient Greek storylines) has a happy ending. Daphnis and Chloe are both abandoned at birth, and they grow up as childhood friends, living a bucolic life. They fall in love (of course) and are taught by a shepherd that there is “there is no remedy for Love, that can be eaten or drunk, or uttered in song, save kissing and embracing, and lying side by side.”

Smut in Medieval Times

What better way to cheer up after a plague than with some smut? That’s a thought the 14th-century Italian author Giovanni Boccaccio had when he wrote the Decameron, a short story collection of over 100 tales, told from the perspective of a group of young women and men quarantined outside of Florence to avoid the Black Death. Given the circumstances, it’s not too surprising that a number of the stories would contain more erotic descriptions (and some penis jokes, too).

Smut in Victorian Times

Victorian England was known for its strictness and purity culture. So, of course, it was the perfect crucible for many authors to write and publish smut—which would typically get banned. One such work is My Secret Life, a once-anonymous 11-volume epic detailing the author’s sexual development and escapades. It’s unclear how much of this 4,000-page work was fictionalized, so it’s possible it can’t truly be considered smut by that virtue—but historians may be beyond the point of fact-checking all the book’s lurid details. It did take over 100 years for them to uncover the author’s identity, after all. In 2000, the Ian Gibson biographer named Henry Spencer Ashbee as the book’s writer.

Smut Today

erotic-ish novels to read in public.

literotica that can be hidden in plain sight.

literary love affairs.

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history's raunchiest love letters.

the greats that mastered the raunchy missive long before technological innovations.

Porn at the New York Public Library.

the enormous erotica collections of the world’s finest institutions.