My Life & Loves: The Complete Grove Press Edition Five Volumes in One

I read this book over 40 years ago and wanted to refresh my memory. Although it is erotic it also is a depiction of life in the 19th and early 20th centuries in England and the U.S. The author was obviously a well educated person and a bit boastful but the descriptions of life are most vivid. I saw a movie of part of the book and it starred Jack Lemmon playing the part of Frank Harris. I loved the story!!

A racy,raunchy but immensely readable autobiography of Frank Harris.Harris is a consummate story-teller & raconteur with a vivid style.An energetic and accomplished dilletante he recounts his childhood in stuffy Victorian England groping underneath a skirt at the first available opportunity ("her bottom was like a warm marble"!) to his trip across the pond to America ,where he worked as a cowboy,clerk and lawyer among other things.He had an amazing memory and acquired a lot of erudition,seemingly effortlessly.Anecdotes of Ruskin,Randolph Churchill,Rodin among a score of others are sprinkled liberally .His refreshing honesty,contempt for humbug & hypocrisy along with boundless energy and optimism makes this a great read.It makes for a leisurely read and is best savored during the hot, long summer after dinner___ over a cigar!

I really don't know how many of My Life and Loves volumes have been sold worldwide but it seems to me that most of my friends in different countries all found this book in their dads library and usually well hidden behind other books..... The five volume book of almost 1000 pages is a faboulous look into 19th century world and a compendium of famous and not so famous people of the era ,,, Not only does the author deal with socio-economic and religious thoughts and beliefs of the time but he takes the dryness out of historial perspective by peppering the book with numerous erotic escapades of the tenderest nature ....If all history books were as good as this one I would have certainly gotten a PHd in History ..... This book is a MUST HAVE for your erotic library ... AND it's one of the few classic erotics that will NEVER go out of print!

Frank Harris' tale begins with his humble origins and voyage to America culminating in financial reward and subsequent return to England. His bravado and financial capability open Harris to a world of erotic pleasure, voyage, gourmandise and to a number of encounters with interesting people of his era. Frank Harris stood by his friend Oscar Wilde until the latters' demise. Faithful both financially and compassionately, Harris is a hands down man of the world and lover of humanity. I read this book thirty years ago to much pubescent excitation and reread it a while back as a father of four and earnest husband. The effect was the same; interesting lives make for interesting people and VICE versa.

Very well written books with a few stories on his erotic encounters, but do not be disappointedto find more about his encounters with famousand capable men and women of the 19th century. It gives an enthralling insight in victorian and edwardian life in English high society.This is the best book I know of that does just that.