ABSTRACT
In the early years of the century, as in the later, sex sold books. It made for the writing of good bad books, but not good books. Bennett and Conrad avoided sex, Wells eugenicized it, Lawrence in the end took it too seriously, Hueffer was too happy feeling miserable about it, Sinclair lost interest, Forster censored himself. Kipling stuck to people whose youth or misfortune ruled them out, Richardson refined it out of existence. Only Maugham, Joyce (Brown 1985) and, in a very different way, James had anything memorable to say on the subject.
