Title:
The Pearl: The
Underground
Magazine of
Victorian Erotica,
Vol. 2. Issues 4-6
Author:
Anonymous
Publisher:
Renaissance
E-Books
ISBN:
1-58873-222-3
Copyright Date:
2003
Format:
Electronic
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Those politically incorrect Victorians sure knew how to have fun with the written word. The Pearl, an infamous Victorian magazine, served as its generation's "Playboy" gained notoriety in England in the late 19th century. In the 1960s to the 70's when you walked into the fiction section of a local bookstore, The Pearl was a book on the "A" shelf (A as in "by Anonymous"), usually with a plain cover showing a woman's black-stocking legs. The only "dirty" book you could find in the real fiction section.
A raucous sense of humor is evident in all these stories. Three more issues of the scandalous Victorian magazine are included in this volume. The stories are continuations of erotic serials from vol. 1 including "Miss Coote's Confession" ("Memoirs of A Naughty Schoolgirl" type scenario), "Sub-Umbra or Sport Among The She-Noodles (fooling around in the garden) and "Young Beginners" (eavesdropping on a lascivious Uncle and his lady friend.) "The Pearl" is an often-imitated, often-satirized masterpiece of erotica, and it is funny, historical and titillating.
Plenty of naughty poetry is interspersed throughout The Pearl in addition to the saucy fiction. Sample verse, from Nursery Rhymes: "There was a young parson of Harwich/Tried to grind his betrothed in a carriage/ She said, "No, you young goose, just try self-abuse/And the other we'll try after marriage."
Reviewed by: Jade
