Ready in June
STEVEN MARCUS
The Other Victorians
A Study of Sexuality and Pornography
in Mid-Nineteenth-Century England
Taking as his point of departure the authors, the audience, and
the texts of Victorian writings on sex in general and of Vic–
torian pornography in particular, Professor Marcus offers a
startling and revolutionary perspective on the underside of
Victorian culture.
Making use, for the first time, of the extensive collection of
Victoriana at the Kinsey Institute for Sex Research, Professor
Marcus first examines the writings of Dr. William Acton, who
may be said to represent the "official views" of sexuality held
by Victorian society, and of Henry Spencer Ashbee, the first
and most important bibliographer-scholar of pornography. He
then turns to the most significant work of its kind from the
period, the eleven-volume anonymous autobiography,
My
Secret
Life.
There follows an analysis of four pornographic Victorian
novels-an analysis that throws an oblique but fascinating light
on the classics of Victorian literature--and a review of the
odd flood of Victorian publications devoted to flagellation.
The book concludes with an essay propounding a general theory
of pornography as a sociological phenomenon.
With the publication of
The Other Victorians,
understanding
of this period takes a giant stride forward. And, though most
of the writers and writings discussed by Professor Marcus be–
long to Victorian sub-literature rather than
to
literature proper,
it nevertheless remains true that the future study of the
Victorian era will not be divorced from a consideration of the
exotic sub-literature that fermented far beneath it.
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