# Recommend some Victorian or Edwardian porn **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 18, 2006, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-victorian-or-edwardian-porn/376860 "2006-10-18T00:32:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2006, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-victorian-or-edwardian-porn/376860/21 "2006-10-19T14:31:16Z")
I seem to vaguely remember a book called _The Tutor_, about very naughty goings-on in a Victorian country home, as told by a scullery maid or the like. Don’t know the author, though, and was never able to find it again after reading it in my teens. ---
**Author:** ![Sonia\_Montdore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/90ced4/32.png) [@Sonia\_Montdore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sonia_Montdore)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2006, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-victorian-or-edwardian-porn/376860/22 "2006-10-19T21:15:20Z")
[QUOTE=OpalCat] Wow. That stuff’s every bit as dirty as what’s written today! [/QUOTE] Oh, it’s _much_ dirtier than what gets written today, because sex in those days was such an utterly forbidden topic. The sense of joyful naughtiness that pervades Vict and Edwardian erotica gives it its appeal. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2006, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-victorian-or-edwardian-porn/376860/23 "2006-10-19T21:36:35Z")
Birching? Gamahuche? I didn’t think I was all that sheltered, but what do these words mean? ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2006, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-victorian-or-edwardian-porn/376860/24 "2006-10-19T22:01:12Z")
**Gamahuche** : To practise fellatio or cunnilingus, hence _gamahucher_. **birching** : whipping with a birch rod. ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2006, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-victorian-or-edwardian-porn/376860/25 "2006-10-19T22:58:07Z")
[QUOTE=Sonia Montdore] Oh, it’s _much_ dirtier than what gets written today, because sex in those days was such an utterly forbidden topic. The sense of joyful naughtiness that pervades Vict and Edwardian erotica gives it its appeal. [/QUOTE] You could argue that it’s dirtier in relative terms, but I meant that just on its own merits, not taking into account the era in which it was written, it’s the same as what we see today. ---
**Author:** ![Tristan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tristan/32/18058_2.png) [@Tristan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tristan)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2006, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-victorian-or-edwardian-porn/376860/26 "2006-10-19T23:07:41Z")
[QUOTE=OpalCat] You could argue that it’s dirtier in relative terms, but I meant that just on its own merits, not taking into account the era in which it was written, it’s the same as what we see today. [/QUOTE] Mayhaps, but I am utterly tittiliated that the protagonist of the she-noodles story in The Pearl appears to be utterly without “morals”. Bang the cousin, talk the male cousin into banging his sisters… all great fun, apparently. And, my lecherous heart find it all quaint, but sufficiently naughy. Hehehe… ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2006, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-victorian-or-edwardian-porn/376860/27 "2006-10-19T23:14:47Z")
[QUOTE=OpalCat] You could argue that it’s dirtier in relative terms, but I meant that just on its own merits, not taking into account the era in which it was written, it’s the same as what we see today. [/QUOTE] Perhaps that’s because sex hasn’t changed any. There are only so many combinations… 😃 ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2006, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-victorian-or-edwardian-porn/376860/28 "2006-10-19T23:18:51Z")
I wasn’t complaining, I was expressing my surprise that it was up to the level of nasty that we see today. I was expecting it to be tame by today’s standards. ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_Bowe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df788c/32.png) [@Doug\_Bowe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_Bowe)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2006, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-victorian-or-edwardian-porn/376860/29 "2006-10-19T23:24:13Z")
I’m surprised no one has mentioned [Autobiography of a Flea](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Autobiography_of_a_Flea). ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2006, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-victorian-or-edwardian-porn/376860/30 "2006-10-19T23:35:33Z")
There must’ve been re-awakening of interest in Edwardian porn in the early-1970s . My college roommate owned a copy of _The Pearl_, and I remember National Lampoon doing a parody of _My Secret Life_, as written by David Eisenhower. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2006, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-victorian-or-edwardian-porn/376860/31 "2006-10-19T23:54:10Z")
This stuff never goes out of print. The hallmark of a “sophisticated” gentleman’s library at any time in the 20th century was a collection of “underground” materials. Certainly there would be repositories at any major college and any jackanapes undergraduate would know where to find it. The Lampoon staff had a long history of this. Michael O’Donoghue wrote “Pornocopia” in the very first issue of National Lampoon, giving note-perfect parodies of pornographic styles from several centuries, including “The Fin-de-Siecle British Birching Book.” ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2006, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-victorian-or-edwardian-porn/376860/32 "2006-10-20T00:26:21Z")
I forget whose quote this is, but it seems particularly appropriate for this thread: “The only thing the 20th century has given to sexuality is the D-cell battery.” ---
**Author:** ![Sonia\_Montdore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/90ced4/32.png) [@Sonia\_Montdore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sonia_Montdore)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2006, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-victorian-or-edwardian-porn/376860/33 "2006-10-20T01:21:04Z")
[QUOTE=Walloon] **Gamahuche** : To practise fellatio or cunnilingus, hence _gamahucher_. **birching** : whipping with a birch rod. [/QUOTE] Some more Victorian sex slang: godemiche: dildo minette: cunnilingus. Speaking of _The Pearl_, its stories and serializations satirize many aspects of Victorian culture, from novels by Benjamin Disraeli to topical events to contemporary scandals - there’s even a sly dig at Queen Victoria’s parish church on the Isle of Wight. I’m pretty sure that several of the stories and poems were written by Algernon Charles Swinburne, the poet. Ages ago, I thought about doing an _Annotated Pearl_. Might still get around to it. ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2006, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-victorian-or-edwardian-porn/376860/34 "2006-10-20T02:56:46Z")
[QUOTE=Ogre] I forget whose quote this is, but it seems particularly appropriate for this thread: “The only thing the 20th century has given to sexuality is the D-cell battery.” [/QUOTE] and latex, penicillin, oral contraceptives and blue diamonds ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2006, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-victorian-or-edwardian-porn/376860/35 "2006-10-20T03:19:17Z")
A bit post-Edwardian in setting, but try [The Curious Sofa](http://www.amazon.com/Curious-Sofa-Pornographic-Ogdred-Weary/dp/0151003076) by Ogdred Weary. ---
**Author:** ![Sonia\_Montdore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/90ced4/32.png) [@Sonia\_Montdore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sonia_Montdore)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2006, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-victorian-or-edwardian-porn/376860/36 "2006-10-20T11:46:12Z")
[QUOTE=outlierrn] and latex, penicillin, oral contraceptives and blue diamonds [/QUOTE] What are blue diamonds? ---
**Author:** ![stegon66](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee59a6/32.png) [@stegon66](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stegon66)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2006, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-victorian-or-edwardian-porn/376860/37 "2006-10-20T12:33:13Z")
You could also watch [this.](http://imdb.com/title/tt0156849/) Great movie. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2006, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-victorian-or-edwardian-porn/376860/38 "2006-10-20T15:47:10Z")
[QUOTE=outlierrn] and latex, penicillin, oral contraceptives and blue diamonds [/QUOTE] Yes, but apart from that, what’s the 20th century ever done for us? ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2006, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-victorian-or-edwardian-porn/376860/39 "2006-10-20T15:50:21Z")
[QUOTE=Sonia Montdore] What are blue diamonds? [/QUOTE] [Viagra pills](http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=blue+diamond). ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2006, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-victorian-or-edwardian-porn/376860/40 "2006-10-20T18:39:15Z")
[QUOTE=outlierrn] and latex, penicillin, oral contraceptives and blue diamonds [/QUOTE] Yes, and AIDS and internet porn and Free Love, baby. I knew someone would nitpick me, and miss the point. The quote is just a shorthand way of saying, “people have been into all kinds of freaky sex throughout history.” It is not to be taken literally. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-victorian-or-edwardian-porn/376860.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-victorian-or-edwardian-porn/376860.md?page=3)