Once a Week is Ample: Or, the Moderately Sensual Victorian’s Guide to Restraint of the Passions

The Victorians were a chaste bunch – at least on the surface of it – and enjoyed nothing better than to indulge in a little repression and moralising. In choice quotations from eminent authorities of the period, Once A Week Is Ample reveals how to handle that most delicate issue of human existence: sex. `The personally secret life of men and women has never been handled more delicately, chastely, convincingly, or with more ennobling force, than is done in this book.’ Sex, or conjugal and carnal relations, was not something the Victorians openly applauded. Delicate, private, embarrassing…it was all too often a subject to be whispered about furtively in shadowy corners. If you had to do it, it had to be done quietly. And women didn’t do it at all. It was a subject so sensitive, even Debrett was challenged. Cautious questions require considered answers: discover them all in Once A Week Is Ample. `My constant Endeavour is to subdue Desire of the Flesh. Am I right to do so? Will I avoid the Muddy Swamps of Weariness?’ `My wife is Expectant and her Condition is Clearly Manifest. Surely this will cause Distress of Mind to my Sons, who are of a Delicate Age?’ Once A Week Is Ample will save many a young fellow from the blast and blight of a befouled manhood, wrecked by the wretched blunderings of an ignorant youth. And many a woman, too. It is an absolute must-have for any person – the young and impressionable in particular – who might be thinking of indulging in a little forbidden fruit.

About the Author :
Gerard Macdonald was born in New Zealand. He trained in education and political sociology. As well as continuing his educational research he also writes books for schools and fiction for children, political commentary and scripts for TV.

Review :
`I am glad to commend it. The short chapters, full of physiological truths, will be read by young males without awakening a prurient thought.’ `It is written reverently but very plainly and, I believe, will save a multitude of young men from evils unspeakable.’ `An admirable course of instruction for the most intimate of relations.’