The Pearl

Lewd, bawdy, and sensual, this cult classic is a collection of Victorian erotica that circulated in an underground magazine known as The Pearl from July 1879 to December 1880. Now dusted off and totally uncensored, the journal of voluptuous reading that titillated the eminent Victorians is reprinted in its entirety. The 18 issues of The Pearl are packed with short stories, naughty poems, ballads of sexual adventure, letters, limericks, jokes, gossip, and six serialized novels including "La Rose d'Amour," filled with inventive and exotic lovemaking scenes; "My Grandmother's Tale," with graphic descriptions of initiations into pleasure; "Miss Coote's Confession," a tale demonstrating the Victorian interest in flagellation; and "Young Beginners," a collection of exuberant sexual adventures. Scatological and scandalous, The Pearl is definitely not for the straitlaced or pure of mind.