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Reviews of Some Regency and Victorian Smut

So I did a little research on Victorian and Regency erotic fiction. It was partially for a fan fiction story where Jane catches Lydia reading erotica, but I also blame Tumblr because it was a line from one, The Autobiography of a Flea, that got me interested. This is what I thought. NSFW obviously and also sexual assault and incest. However, I will avoid being graphic (unlike these writers).

The Autobiography of a Flea by Edward Avery, 1887

I will start here. I was drawn in by the line, "his huge penis menaced the skies." Like how could I not want to read more? The fact is I only really read the first few chapters and then I was done.

Chapter 1 is actually pretty cute. The female character, Bella, has sex with her teenage crush Charlie. It's a vanilla sex scene. Unfortunately, Father Ambrose was the one who encouraged this encounter and he tells Bella to come visit him for "punishment". The punishment is obviously sex.

However, after the first encounter, Bella is very down and requests to come again. The next time two other priests discover what is happening and demand to join in. She has a few sessions of sex with all three.

Then Father Ambrose goes to Bella's house and tells her uncle that he's had sex with her (he promised he wouldn't tell). Then both the priest and her uncle have sex with her while holding her down. However, after this she is totally down with whatever (yay?). Then I stopped reading (Ch 7).

Things that stood out to me: an obsession with men producing a torrent of sperm. Like why is so much time devoted to how much there is? And weirdly enough, Bella enjoys the sensation. I'm just going to put this down as the author's fetish and probably not interviewing a lot of women before writing this. Also, unclear why Father Ambrose wants to expose Bella to her uncle, since then they are worried about secrecy with another woman.

Good stuff: Bella seems pretty happy to have sex. The first chapter. The hilarious language. She cums frequently, though unrealistically (eg. before her teenage lover on her first time and he hasn't done a lot of foreplay). Bella gets some nice oral.

Bad stuff: There is sex with Bella while she is unconscious. While she may be enjoying herself, she was initially blackmailed into having sex with the priest. Chapter 5 is clearly rape. Also, incest. Why with the incest? Also, based on the summary, there will be more incest. Don't love the idea that once you expose a woman to sex she becomes a nymphomaniac, as if it was just waiting to be released. But like in a way that retroactively seems to forgive ruining her in the first place....

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The Memoirs of a Woman for Pleasure, better known under the title Fanny Hill by John Cleland, 1748

Fanny leaves home after her parents die hoping to find work in London. She is taken into a whore house, where a bisexual prostitute fondles her. The mistress of the house sends a man to take her virginity but Fanny resists and he doesn't get it.

Now here is the weird thing: Fanny does not flee at this point.

Fanny watches some people have sex which awakens her desire. However, when Charlie falls for her, she is still a virgin. They elope together and Fanny has her first experience, which is wild in how it happens! He cannot get in, eventually forces his way into her, she faints (he does not stop having sex with her at this point) and there is a torrent of blood. Worst part: he's the hero.

She spends the next 11 months with Charlie, who then suddenly leaves while she is pregnant. The landlady helps Fanny get a position as a mistress (which is really what she was with Charlie, though unpaid). She is with Mr. H. until he cheats on her and she repays the favour by sleeping with his well-endowed footman. Dismissed, she lands in an upscale brothel. (Where her child is: unclear)

There she meets three other working women, one a nymphomaniac, one who had sex on her way to the city after running away from home, and one who was raped while unconscious and then she immediately forgave her assailant and had sex with him again (???). This is how they "fell" and ended up working with Mrs. Cole. Fanny has a sex party with their four "regulars" who are very high status men (one a baronet).

Her 'virginity' is sold, which she fakes. Then she describes various parties and encounters and men. Finally, she has a lover who gives her a large endowment. Charlie returns in poverty and she marries him. They live happily ever after. She is 15 at the beginning and only 19 by the end.

Things that stood out to me: the author seemed to be trying very hard to make it seem like working women really enjoy this stuff even when they seem to not. I doubt. Also, literally every new man Fanny meets seems to have a larger and larger penis. Like honestly? How is that even possible? You know at some point they won't fit! A guy can't have that much blood in his body!

Good Stuff: I liked the bisexual representation. There was a gay sex scene included and a second gay man who accidentally brought home a girl dressed as a man. While this is a type of representation, Fanny did want to call the police on them. Also, no incest! Sex is generally pretty vanilla just acrobatic.

Bad Stuff: A lot of this was rape fantasy, or like, rape apologism? The girl who was clearly raped forgave the man right away. Fanny and her fellow workers often pretend they don't want to have sex when they do; this behaviour makes their clients very aroused. It is written off as a female affectation, which is all levels of cringe. And Charlie, the supposed hero, continues to have sex with Fanny when she is bleeding and passed out.

Also, the knowledge of female anatomy is a little wanting.

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The Romance of Lust, or Early Experiences by William Lazenby 1873

Buckle up, this one has a lot of incest and it's LONG.

This is the story of Charlie Roberts and a world where everyone is down. Like so down it's crazy. Charlie and his two sisters have been 'innocently' exploring each other, when a governess arrives. Charlie is in lust with her, but nothing happens yet.

He is in a closet when a guest couple have sex in his view. The wife sees him and promises him a prize if he keeps quiet. She visits him later when her husband is gone and they have sex. Charlie has the amazing ability to recover fast and go all night (he usually has sex three times before he even gets less hard). He also is very excited about giving women oral, which is cool.

He sleeps with this wife, often watching her have sex with her husband and then doing her minutes later. She leaves (though she does return later), and he sleeps with his virgin governess. This is the first time he fakes being a virgin, which will happen CONSTANTLY. He also starts having sex with his eldest sister, though the other is too young. (One point in the book's favour, they always wait, but still pretty cringe).

Anyway, Charlie now begins a sexapade which just keeps going, everyone he meets is happy to have sex with him and also not shocked by his sister thing. His governess marries? His new governess is also super horny (and intersexed). He goes to the seaside? Meets a guy who has orgies with him and his sisters. He is sent to school? Turns out his uncle and aunt are totally cool with incest and threesomes. He has a friend? That friend, his girlfriend, and his mother join the party. Charlie goes to London? There he meets his original woman (the married guest), and her friend and her lover and all of them are down! His landlady and her daughters? Also down.

For a while we just hear about various combinations of these people, with some leaving the story to marry. Charlie marries his second governess, who is older than him, and they travel Europe having sex.

Now he's been sleeping with his sisters the whole time, but that was a little easier to read because they were all young so it had the slight justification of him not totally understanding consequences/morality. The last volumes have some less consensual sex and incest with grooming. The one character has a sister-daughter (I think) and then has a child with her (yeah...)

Charlie then marries his daughter (I think? It got confusing and I was skimming by this point) and continues to get off into his old age on incest.

The book ends with some letters which I didn't read.

Things that stood out to me: it was interesting how focused the author was on describing the various genitalia of the participants. Of course Charlie was massive, but other men were described in detail and the women. There was really no superiority in vulvas, Charlie loved them all. Also buttholes. Double penetration seems to be the goal of life. There was so much incest I was honestly shocked that Charlie's mother died before anyone suggested he try with her.

It was also interesting considering how long this was, that it didn't really get into kinks very much. There were several people who liked to be whipped with switches, but that's about it.

Also, every woman was pretty chill with butt stuff and pretty much every man. Everyone's sexual orientation was poly/pan or just extremely horny.

Good stuff: Women's pleasure is emphasized, Charlie is all about going down and making sure women cum. If you stick to the first few volumes everything is clearly consensual, which is nice. You didn't get the rape overtones like Fanny Hill until late in the game. (Maybe the author was running out of ideas).

Bad stuff: Natural sexual consequences were sparse and only to further the story. Charlie gets his one governess pregnant, but his one sister is having orgies for years and only gets pregnant with her eventual husband (the other proves to be sterile). Incest results in beautiful babies and no one is ever grossed out by it. People cheat on unknowing spouses even though they like them. I guess this is a Brave New World-esq utopia where everyone belongs to everybody.

Also, there is a scene where Charlie rapes a woman and she mid-scene decides it's fine because he has such a large penis. Several characters undergo grooming including the governess Charlie marries when she tells him about her background.

All of these are free online, if you want to check them out.

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Illustrations by Sophie Margolin for Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre.

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i survived the 1986 ushiromiya family conference and all i got was this stupid t-shirt

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Effigy depicting Anna of Poland, Countess of Celje (died 1425)

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Ngl I think I hate performative girlbossification of female characters more than I hate people not including said female characters in their fan content. Actually I don't care at all if they're indifferent to her. Who gives a fuck. Like I'd respect it more if they're like "ngl I just don't give a shit about her" with their whole chest, rather than being like "OMG I LOVE HER SO MUCH!!!! She's perfect, she's best girl, she kicks ass [never talks about her ever and only includes her as a prop to examine the male characters they DO like]" just because they're scared of getting called misogynistic. Like if you know in your heart that this character means nothing to you and you know you're not gonna do her justice, might as well just leave her out. But attempts to shoehorn her in, using your 2015-feminist style characterization is so weak, man.

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Chrysanthemums

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design by david klein (part II)

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“The exhibition Borders | Granice features photographs depicting Polish folk art through a multicultural lens.  Through showing Polish traditional costumes worn by people of different nationalities, the authors pose questions about the faces, dimensions and limits of Polish national identity against the backdrop of rapid social change.  As ethnic diversity returns to Poland - a nation violently stripped of its national minorities during World War II - Poles must decide whether to embrace it or remain closed.”

Project by Piotr Sikora and Piotr Bondarczyk

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we have always lived in the castle illustrated by thomas ehretsmann for centipede press

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sugar plum harpy

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'The Songs of Bilitis' illustrated by George Barbier, 1921-1922

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The Golden Lyre of Ur, from the Royal Cemetery of Ur, Sumerian, circa 2550-2450 BC

Housed at the National Museum of Iraq

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genuinely cannot stop thinking about this tweet. i keep wanting to say "saionji somewhere in an alleyway:" unaware that no one will get the reference

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A Cossack and the Devil by Edward Cossack, 1960s

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some jwqs character designs i made a while ago based on my researches on early tang dynasty! I'm not sure if it's accurate enough but i had fun doing these