"A knowledgeable, tightly constructed piece of scholarship."— Washington Post Book World Nymphomania—organic disease, psychological disorder, legal construct, and locker-room joke. Throughout history, it's been all these and more. Today images of sexually available women permeate our culture, and curiosity about nymphomania appears to be as insatiable as the stereotypical nymphomaniac herself. Carol Groneman follows the idea of nymphomania over the last two hundred years, unraveling questions about how much is too much sex for women—and who decides. "A provocative new book."— Discover "[A] chronological narrative of its evolution, documented with an abundance of (often grisly, always mind-boggling) case-histories...thorough, dispassionate, dryly witty."— Los Angeles Times Book Review "Nervy, thoughtful, incisively written tale of a putative 'disease' that wonderfully invites reflection on society's assumptions about women, illness, sexuality."— Philadelphia Inquirer , Carlin Romano "[F]ascinating and thoroughly researched."— Soma , Jonathan Morrow "Drawing from science, law and pop culture, Nymphomania is a fascinating, readable history of hot women."— Playboy , James R. Petersen "A textured tapestry of women's history that lingers with the reader long after the book is finished. ...even-handed and thought-provoking."—CNN.com, Leah Lessard "Diseases have biographies, just like people, and Carol Groneman has produced a fascinating one, filled with lively and thought-provoking examples that illuminate the critical relationship between medical practice and cultural ideas about women's bodies and their sexuality."—Joan Jacobs Brumberg, author of Fasting Girls and The Body Project "Carol Groneman's powerful, stunning book tells us a lot about love and hate, lust and power."—Blanche Wiesen Cook, biographer of Eleanor Roosevelt "...trying to upend conventional assumptions about sex..."— The New York Times , Dinitia Smith "Groneman...sketches the historical and social contexts in which nymphomania was considered ... [Her] anecdotal history stimulates thought."— Publishers Weekly "[A]s...Groneman points out in her fascinating new book on the subject, [the term nymphomania has undergone almost comical permutations."— The New York Times , Molly Haskell