Kissing is a tricky subject. It has a complex, baffling history. The kiss of a baby is one thing; the kiss of lust something quite else. Kings, generals and prelates used to kiss, as did mafiosi – often before killing. The kiss has many meanings, all of which are explored in this informative, if sometimes wearing, book. Finally, a warning: if you’re queasy about arse-kissing, don’t read it.
But then you would be missing a lot. Katie Barclay, a diligent Australian academic, has written an ‘overview of the world of the kiss in Europe from medieval times to the present’. Her opening words begin listing the startling variety of the kissing involved: ‘Smooch, snog, pash, smack, peck, canoodle…’ But the core of the book concerns the changing historical connotations of osculation.
Nowadays a kiss denotes something primarily sexual, largely because of mass media. Nothing sells like sex, and so the snog is the dominant form of the kiss in the contemporary imagination. This is followed by familial kisses – which, strangely, may be life-savers. American insurance companies have claimed that men who were kissed goodbye by their wives before driving to work were less likely to have car crashes. I find this a little threadbare, but maybe…
