Product Description

Among the first "Journals of Voluptuous Reading" to be spawned by the Victorians, this novel shows them as vastly different from their public image--beneath the facade of respectability and sexual repression there existed the strongest urge for sexual experimentation and enjoyment. First published in London in July 1879, it provided unrestrained erotica for every taste.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #36989 in Books
• Published on: 1996-09-29
• Released on: 1996-09-29
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 643 pages

About the Author

Customer Reviews

A Classic
Other than the 18th Century Fanny Hill, The Pearl is the earliest genuine Victorian erotic classic. In tone, style and subject matter, it is undoubedtly the Real McCoy of the genre.

As they say, there is something for everyone, and much that may not be of interest. The writing is varied...reflecting the different contributors, but uniformly well done. Often funny, frequently raunchy, mostly playful, The Pearl should be able to offer something you like if you have an interest in Victorian erotica.

The text follows the magazine format from which it was taken, so that the stories are arranged in installments that pick up and resume after other segments. This can be distracting if you particularly want to follow one thread, but not difficult once you get used to it. The "plots" are not significant, in any event. Great scenes of initiation into sex, voyeurism, and other delights. Interestingly, women seem to like this book (at least parts of it) which is not a given with its successors. My partner loves the scenes of blushing young maidens being initiated by a strapping youth beside a meadow fence, and the like.

This is a tome you will mark up for re-reading favorite passages. Get it even if you don't like mild S&M, incest, and punishment...you can skip those sections. As you get to know later examples of the Victorian genre, you will never lose your fondness for the original article.

Best of the Victorian Era
I've had a copy of this book for over 20 years, and I still go back to it from time to time when I'm looking to [have a good time with myself]. Of the Victorian erotica I've read (probably half a dozen books or so), this is the one I find most helpful, most appealing. I've even thrown it away a few times, only to repurchase it later because I missed it so.

The book contains quite a range of material, from short stories to serialized novels to poetry and limmericks. Perhaps half of the material here is S&M-realted (primarily involving people hitting each other with birch sticks), which doesn't especially appeal to me, but I've learned which stories focus more on what I'm interested in, and so the S&M bits don't distract me.

Most of the non-S&M stuff starts off with introducing innocent young women to the delights of sex. Some of the "young women" are teenagers, and some of the teenagers are barely teenagers. There are also many scenes that reinforce the Victorian stereotype of "women want sex, they just can't admit to wanting it." This results in numerous cases where women say "no, please don't." Of course, in the story they really do want it.... Anyway, if you're offended by stories depicting under-18s having sex, or of stories that involve non-consensual (or very nearly non-consensual) sex--you will want to avoid this book.

There are some bisexual scenes in the book. Most of these are female-female, but there are a small handful that are male-male.

A Classic of Erotic Reading - Tales of S/M and More
This is a classic of erotica, with something for everyone. This appears to be a genuine Victorian work. The S/M is very Victorian, and very well expressed. There are generous helpings of homosexuality, male and female, along with plenty of heterosexual couplings, all with a reasonable literary flair. BTW, to buy this book in New Zealand you had to fill out a form declaring that you were buying it for serious literary purposes and not just because you like to read erotica!