About book My Secret Life: An Erotic Diary Of Victorian London (1996)
My edition said it was written by Anonymous ... I guess give it a 100 years and you can come out of the closet. I didn't like this for the sex. He has a lot of it, and its very repetitive. Then again, he writes about things that sexual education people would write about fifty or sixty years after him, so you could say he was ahead of his time. Ahead of his time also in that he's not afraid of being gay or bi or ... anything really. He is incredibly liberated. Possibly too much. (But how Victorian of me to say that!)What I liked mostly was that ... silly me, after reading Austen and the Brontes and Dickens, etc., various Victorian writers, I assumed people only had sex in the Victorian era to procreate. That they didn't like it. That sex has always been abhorrent until the 1960s when certain theorists and drug-crazed hippies allowed us all to enjoy sex!Amazing that a man (an aristocrat, lots of money to buy sex, lots of time on his hands to enjoy it) older than my grandpa if not great-grandpa was getting more than me and wasn't hung up about labels and various fears which surround many sexual ventures ... these days, anyway. I would have thought in his age there would be more fear. There was, Im sure, but he doesn't come off as afraid. (Again, hes rich. He can sway people with money, bribes, fancy clothes, horse-drawn carriages, etc).Anyway, that's what was the most amazing thing for me. That he writes a modern story in an ancient time. Gratuitously sexual, pornographic, no plot -- this is not an erotic tale -- its a document of sex sex sex. If you want a plot with a beginning, middle and end, go to the people who wrote AFTER this man: Henry Miller, Anais Nin, DH Lawrence, Philip Roth, James Joyce, etc. All those modernists are boring as hell when it comes to this guys sex life and his explanations of sexual practices, curiosities, etc. Seriously -- Henry Miller of all people is a monk compared to this guy.Its an abridged version, at 576 pages, because I heard the full manuscript is about 1 million words long. So that's VERY repetitive. Your eyes blur over hot erotic scenes and you yawn and ask, is this over yet? Yes yes fuck each other and lets hear what you had for dinner in 1880.But there are some interesting slices of culture you can read between the lines. I imagine that this is the story that goes on and has always gone on behind all those Dickens and Bronte novels, but those authors didn't want to get banned.As this author says, this sexuality has ALWAYS gone on amongst people (and will always go on) so why is everyone surprised? Hes just doing what people always do, but the law, politics, etc of any given time tells you how much sex youre allowed to have and how you should have it when you do. Missionary only, clothes fully on, just pulled down to expose certain naughty bits, but don't look at each when you do, in the dark as always.This man has kicked the government, the cops, and the judges out of his many bedrooms and done what he wanted to do, unrestrained.More than most of us can say we will ever do in a lifetime. And if we do, we too must remain 'Anonymous'.
DEFINITELY NOT RECOMMENDED TO EVERYONE-very racyVery dirty. Author was actually 'Anonymous', however this program doesn't let you enter books without an author.Banned for a 100 years for being too obscene and pornographic, this sex diary of a Victorian gentleman is considered an historic and erotic masterpiece.First published in Amsterdam , the next hundred years, it remained banned and considered too racy to publish.No-one really knows the true identity of "Walter". But biographer Ian Gibson claims it is the pen name for Henry Spencer Ashbee.Only 20-25 sets of My Secret Life were originally printed, and sold at £60 per set, an enormous sum for the times, equivalent to over £4000 ($6000) at today's prices.Famous People who owned My Secret LifeAleister Crowley (1875–1947)English occult writer and 'magician'Harold Lloyd (1893–1971)American silent film comedian and producerJosef von Sternberg (1894–1969)Austrian film director and Svengali to Marlene DietrichGeorge Mountbatten, 2nd Marquess of Milford Havengreat-grandson of Queen Victoria, brother of 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma
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I don't remember this book as erotic, nor is it really a confession: no regrets, no ethical or social concerns, or any other feeling. Kind of a pre-D.H.Lawrence without tenderness or respect for the other participant(s).It includes scenes that would horrify today even more than then: sexual harassment of servants, rape, statutory rape, even pædophilia, and very little reference to shared pleasure.The unabashed diary of a misogynist sociopathic sex addict, it is also a cautionary tale: if a moralist society tries to impose unrealistic virtue, the rebels who choose to cross that boundary know no other. Prohibit alcohol, or marijuana, or sex actually promotes crime.
—Michel
Sort of hard to form an opinion of this book. On one hand it it is at first disturbing because the writer begins with recollections of being abused as a child and then moves on to his harassing, exploiting, raping, purchasing and seducing women. At times he seems almost delusional in his belief that every woman "wants it" so i suspect that some of what he believes are seductions are really not as consenting as he thinks. On the other hand, here is a rare insight into the sexual psychology of the Victorian man and also some of "unsavory" particulars of the time. (Bathroom habits and lack of undergarments for one thing, access to abortions for another.) I wrote a paper on gender and sexual anxieties as portrayed in Victorian fiction, and that was how i heard about this book, and I wish I would have had this for that paper. It's fascinating to watch the narrator as he cycles through immature to worldly, powerful to powerless, confident to sheepish, and lewd to ashamed.There are some issues with knowing how much we can trust this narrator, but more important than the truth of each incident, I think, is getting a glimpse at the way language and desires are put together: I have lost track of all the slang and nicknames for body parts and functions. It is always interesting to see that the things we assumed were so repressed at this time had multiple descriptive phrases. Something about his accumulators rogering to frig a wench's motte with his pego...??? So randy!Basically, if you are looking for a sexy sexy book, this might disappoint you. Every page has sex and bawdy talk, but some of it is sort of depressing and/or morally sickening. I don't mean that in a "depraved acts" sort of way, but that for me it was hard to read these "true stories" about Walter's mistreatment of so many of these girls and servants, and yet at times I also felt sorry for him. His beliefs about his body and illness and his overpowering need for women are honest and almost pitiful. i wish i could know more about his non-secret life.To sum up my review: This is a gold mine for anyone researching Victorian literature, sexual psychology or sociology. But, if you're looking for a jolly good time this won't hit the right note with everyone.
—Robin
I can't really rate this book as an enjoyable read but My Secret Life is invaluable for anyone interested in Victoriana. The voluminous work details the exploits of a bounder who rarely looks for sexual partners from his own social class but instead rapes and pillages the vaginas and other orifaces of poor girls, maids, sailors and street prostitues with joyous abandon. My Secret Life is more 19th Century social history than erotica. Emotions are rarely involved, the sex often brutal, the author's contempt for those from the "lower" classes and women as a whole at all times palpable.
—Lee Rene
