The Other Victorians: A Study of Sexuality and Pornography in Mid-Nineteenth-Century England

Marcus' study of the underbelly of the staid and proper Victorian era is a fascinating look at the rampant pornography, prositution, and licentiousness that bubbled up behind the scenes. Quoting liberally from the writings of Henry Spencer Ashbee (generally ceded to be the author of "My Secret Life"-- Marcus has his doubts) and others, he exposes the boisterous and life-affirming erotic life that sprang up in spite of (because of?) the deeply inhibited society of the time. For those with an interest in Victorian sociology or literature, this will prove a valuable read.

This is a study of pornography in Victorian England. It gave rise to considerable comment when it was first published 40 years ago. It seems to be largely forgotten now, and while I was surprised to find it had not been given a previous notice here I reflected that if my eye had not lit on it by chance in a second-hand bookshop a couple of weeks ago I myself would never have read it to this day. Steven Marcus is or was a professor of English at Columbia. He has written a book on Dickens, but his area of specialisation also includes Freud. Equipped, therefore, with this eminently relevant background he acceded to persuasion, he tells us, to illuminate a murky chapter in English letters, and it seems to me that he has made rather a good job of it. I trust it hardly needs saying that this is a serious work of scholarship and analysis, not some nudge-nudge production. By `serious' I don't mean or imply that it is solemn. Marcus has a very nice turn of academic sarcasm at times, and I treasure a few gems such as `There is about as little truth in this description as is compatible with the laws of probability'. A sense of humour and a sense of the ridiculous are needed to deal with a topic like this in a satisfactory way, and the author either is or puts up a good show of being a well-adjusted, emotionally balanced and admirably rational human being who has been able to evaluate what the human, or at least the human male, sexual experience amounts to. Pornography seems to be almost entirely written by men for men. A certain amount of the material that Marcus uses as illustration is written in a female persona, but this is usually a pretext for male self-reassurance with the putative women thrilled and amazed at the wondrous male body. A certain amount more is written from the male perspective, but again this seems to be largely concerned with the pornographer's concern to reinforce his estimate, be it actual or hopeful, of his own effectiveness. Such writers claim intimate acquaintance with far more female bodies than it has been my own good fortune to experience, but one really striking feature seems to be basic ignorance of some of the elements of female anatomy - indeed also of their own male anatomy it sometimes seemed to me. Such is the mesmeric power of fantasy, it would appear. The book is very well put together, and very clear about what topics it wants to address. Marcus begins with three particular works that deserve detailed comment in their own right, and he proceeds via some minor efforts that typify other aspects of the genre to the sort of thing one expects and demands in a serious and professional study - the origins of this kind of writing, its style and the significance of its vocabulary and idiom, the light it sheds on the world it took place in, its relevance to his own era, and, finally and very properly, some generalised reflections of his own regarding sexuality. The obvious place to begin was with Dr William Acton. From what