Jack Saul (1)

Purporting to be the memoirs of Jack Saul, a real-life rent boy who was involved in the Cleveland Street scandal, The Sins of the Cities of the Plain gives us a look at the seedy underbelly of Victorian London. Its literary value is negligible, and it gives the impression that one could hardly open a door in the era without risking viewing any sex act from anilingus to zoophilia.

Not really recommended, but it's available on Project Gutenberg if you want to take a peek.… (mehr)

I don't know quite how to rate this book or if there was a point in my trying seeing as I did read it for school. And, more to the point, because it is Victorian pornography. Do I compare it to other books I read? Do I compare it to erotica, contemporary and past? Do I compare it to other Victorian pornographic novels? I just don't know, and I'm not sure that there is much to be had out of trying. It is, of course, ridiculous. It is also fascinating, and thinking about it in terms of its publication and original readership--thinking about who was reading it and when and where--is another aspect of the text entirely (that its original readers probably did not care so much about). I read this on the boat from Igoumenitsa to Ancona and fully appreciated the discretion of possessing an e-reader for the first time. It is meant to be titillating so of course it is in some respects, but it is also comical (intentionally and unintentionally) and unlikely. It wouldn't be my first recommendation for a book to get off with (though different strokes for different folks, as they say), but if you're curious about just how unrepressed the Victorians could be when they chose, take a gander.… (mehr)