Sex and Sexuality in Victorian Britain by Violet Fenn;

Author:Violet Fenn; [Неизв.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: History / General
Publisher: Casemate Publishers & Book Distributors, LLC
Published: 2020-05-29T20:00:00+00:00

In addition to being the inspiration for better quality prison literature, Dugdale was, during his lifetime, described by Henry Spencer Ashbee, a renowned collector of erotica, as being ‘one of the most prolific publishers of filthy books’. Ashbee knew quality filth when he saw it. Best remembered for his three-part bibliography of erotica under the pseudonym ‘Pisanus Fraxi’, Henry was something of an authority on the pornographic art. Index Librorum Prohibitorum: being Notes Bio-Biblio- Icono- graphical and Critical, on Curious and Uncommon Books was privately published in 1877 and took its name from the Catholic Church’s Index Librorum Prohibitorum, a list of books that the church believed should be banned. A second part, Centuria Librorum Absconditorum or A Hundred Books that should be Hidden (complete with the same lengthy subtitle as the first edition), was published in 1879, followed by Catena Librorum Tacendorum/Further Books which should not be Mentioned in 1885. Each bibliography contains plot summaries and quotes from the books listed inside its covers.

Ashbee is also widely assumed to have been the real life person behind ‘Walter’, the pseudonymous author of the graphic memoir My Secret Life. An in-depth account of the sexual adventures of a Victorian gentleman, the author is clearly aiming for the connoisseur from the start. The frontispiece reads: ‘PRIVATELY PRINTED FOR SUBSCRIBERS. 1888. This first reprint of “My Secret Life” is for private distribution among connoisseur collectors. It is strictly limited to four hundred and seventy five copies, all of which have been subscribed for prior to publication.’

Walter’s recollections certainly didn’t hold back on the details of his encounters: ‘I spent Charlotte’s third holiday with her, in a comfortable bed-room. We stopped from eleven in the morning, till nine at night, having mutton chops and ale, and being as jolly as we could be. We did nothing the whole day long, but look at each other’s privates, kiss, fuck and sleep outside the bed.’

One particularly memorable anecdote told of competitive masturbation amongst a group of unnamed young men:

At a signal, five young men (none I am sure nineteen years old) seated on chairs in the middle of the room began frigging themselves, amidst noise and laughter. The noise soon subsided, the voices grew quiet, then ceased, and was succeeded by convulsive breathing sighs and long-drawn breaths, the legs of some writhed, and stretched out, their backsides wriggled on the chairs, one suddenly stood up. Five hands were frigging as fast as they could, the prick-knobs standing out of a bright vermillion tint looking as if they must burst away from the hands which held them. Suddenly one cried “f-fi-fir-first,” as some drops of gruelly fluid flew across the room, and the frigger sunk back in the chair.

(My Secret Life, Walter, 1888.)

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