(The Best of The Pearl, a Journal of Voluptuous Reading.)
Anonymous
The infamous Victorian monthly magazine The Pearl was published in London from July 1879 to December 1880 and was subsequently shut down by the authorities for publishing obscene literature.
Each issue was devoted to erotic serials featuring sex in high society, incest and flagellation, interspersed with ribald parodies, rude poems and smutty limericks
This selection (over 300 pages) includes the best of The Pearl and is drawn from all of its original 18 issues. Hidden Gems is a fascinating look at the secret obsessions behind the Puritan’s mask.
Step inside and enjoy this raunchy romp through the Victorian underground.
Title: Hidden Gems
Author: Anonymous
Introduction: William Hamilton
ISBN-10: 0692450165
ISBN-13: 978-0692450161
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Black Scat Books
Pages: 334
Language: English
Item Weight: 15.2 ounces
Dimensions: 5.06 x 0.84 x 7.81 inches Book details (publisher): Hidden Gems
(Containing a Topographical, Geographical and Natural History of that Country.)
Imagine if Christopher Columbus, Marco Polo, Sir Richard Burton, Francis Drake, James Cook or Walter Raleigh had written in their travel accounts about the erotic landscapes they traversed. Well, that’s what the anonymous intrepid explorer has done with Travels to Merryland.
This satirical travelogue was first published in England 1740 and with Swiftian wit, it describes the female sexual anatomy as a metaphor of geography and natural history. This lovely guidebook is a must-have for the armchair adventurer, as well as timid explorers who dream of female parts unknown. Students of natural history and budding geographers will discover many hidden delights within these pages.
***This edition also includes a never-before-published map of the country***
Lawrence Hamilton has selected several spicy excerpts from an anonymous English translation of Denis Diderot‘s satiric libertine novel, Les Bijoux Indiscrets (The Indiscreet Jewels), first published in 1749). This edition, from New Urge is entitled From Their Lips to His Ear, is #6 in the Pocket Erotica series.
Denis Diderot was a highly celebrated 18th century French philosopher and editor of the groundbreaking Encyclopédie. In 1748, in need of money, he wrote a scandalous and satiric libertine allegory – Les Bijoux Indiscrets – whose hero, a sultan, is in possession of a magic ring. When aimed at female genitals, this ring prompts the private parts to speak — revealing the woman’s deepest sexual desires, experiences, and indiscretions.
In this precursor to The Vagina Monologues, the women are portrayed as powerful beings through their liberated ideas and sexuality.
Her Three Daughters by Pierre Louÿs, translated from the French into modern English by R J Dent, published by New Urge, is now available.
Synopsis: A young man moves into a new apartment and receives an advanced education in the permutations of sex from a mother and her three—surprisingly well-educated—daughters. Part memoir, part confession, Her Three Daughters is Pierre Louÿs at his erotic best.
“Louÿs’s jolly saga of sexual insatiability…is one of the handful of erotic works that achieve true literary status.” — Susan Sontag
“Among all Pierre Louÿs’s books, this is undoubtedly my favourite, the most moving, most uplifting and sometimes the most terrifying, the purest, the least artificial and the most modern. A masterpiece.” —André Pieyre de Mandiargues
“Amazing! It’s erotica, but high-quality erotica!” — Jean d’Ormesson
“One of the most moving books ever written on the fatality of desires.” —Annie Le Brun
“Here, without question, is Pierre Louÿs’ erotic masterpiece. The strength of the novel does not come from its eventual biographical value, but from the constant transgression that manifests itself within it—containing all the erotic themes dear to the writer, elevated to a singular power. We also find here the key qualities of Louÿs’ style: the liveliness of the dialogue, the precision of the language, the irony, the relentlessness with which certain obscene words are constantly repeated. This scandalous book constitutes a total profanation and derision of the bourgeois universe to which the author belonged.” —Jean-Paul Goujon
Book details:
Title: Her Three Daughters
Author: Pierre Louÿs
Translator: R J Dent
Language: English
Publisher: New Urge
Publication Date: February 13, 2023
ISBN: 979-8986922478
Format: Paperback
Pages: 340
Dimensions: 12.85 cm x 2.16 cm x 19.84 cm (5.06 inches x 0.85 inches x 7.81 inches)
In the tradition of Decadent literature, spiced with Gothic, this provocative novel takes the reader on a voyage through dream, reverie, fantasy, memory and imagination – recounting the raptures and the initiation tortures of a young woman, Gabrielle, by the Vicomtesse, the Comte and their entourage in The Domain.
Sexually explicit without being crude, The Rites of Ecstasy is the story of a woman whose libido and personality lead her to increasingly submissive behaviour – allowing herself to be sexually used, violently beaten, and physically mutilated, which ultimately leads her to discover who – and what – she really is. As Gabrielle’s submission deepens and becomes more extreme, the novel simultaneously deepens its thematic explorations of the relationship between surrender and freedom, the nature and the demands of love, and the transcendent aspects of sexual desire.
A sublime novel that explores love, subservience, cruelty and dominance. The Rites of Ecstasy is a deeply erotic literary work, and as such, Hélène Lavelle’s novel is seductive and dangerous.
This is a novel for connoisseurs of erotic literature, an adult book in every sense, an interesting and intelligent novel of ideas, expressed with eloquence, elegance and wit; beautifully written by Hélène Lavelle, and lucidly translated into sophisticated English by Valéry Soers.
“This modern classic deserves to be ranked alongside the great French erotic masterpieces, Story of O and The Image , and very few others. Not for the faint-hearted or the narrow-minded, this story of love, excess, degradation, cruelty, tenderness and beauty is for all women whose fantasies and desires embrace the intensely erotic.” — Dawn Avril Fitzroy
Title: The Rites of Ecstasy
Author: Hélène Lavelle
Translator: Valéry Soers
Publisher: New Urge Editions
ISBN-10: 1735615900
ISBN-13: 978-1735615905
Format: Paperback
Pages: 238
Language: English
Weight: 15.5 ounces (439.41 grams)
Dimensions: 6.14 x 0.6 x 9.21 inches (15.6 x 1.52 x 23.39 cm)
Hélène Lavelle has also written Le Château du Comte, which is a sequel to The Rites of Ecstasy. Details of Le Château du Comte are available here: Le Château du Comte
Jeremy Reed is one of the UK’s most prolific and skilful poets, yet he remains unknown to a great many readers. For some reason, Jeremy Reed’s work is often overlooked or ignored in favour of the work of far less talented writers.
Jeremy Reed
Jeremy Reed has written a vast number of poetry collections, novels, short stories and non-fiction works. His music biographies include studies of Lou Reed, Scott Walker, Brian Jones and Marc Almond. His literary biographies include studies of Rimbaud, Genet and Anna Kaven, amongst others.
He is a translator of great subtlety and versatility. He has translated key texts by Novalis; Rimbaud; Bogary; Genet; Cocteau; Montale – to name only a few.
Reed’s poetry is some of the most beautiful and insightful poetry ever written, particularly the collections: Patron Saint of Eyeliner; Red-Haired Android; Kicks; Voodoo Excess, West End Survival Kit, and This Is How You Disappear.
If you are unfamiliar with Jeremy Reed’s poetry, then start with a copy of Kicks or Patron Saint of Eyeliner.
If you want to start with his fiction, then try reading his novel Diamond Nebula, or even Dorian, his sequel (of sorts) to Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Grey.
If you prefer non-fiction, then A Stranger on Earth – The Life and Work of Anna Kavan is a good place to start, as is Lou Reed: Waiting For the Man. Also worth looking at is Another Tear Falls – A Biography of Scott Walker; Born To Lose – A Biography of Jean Genet; and Delirium – An Interpretation of Arthur Rimbaud.
Here is a partial bibliography:
NOVELS:
The Lipstick Boys
Blue Rock
Red Eclipse
Inhabiting Shadows
Isidore (a novel about Lautréamont)
Red Hot Lipstick (erotic stories)
When the Whip Comes Down (a novel about De Sade)
The Pleasure Chateau (an erotic trilogy)
Chasing Black Rainbows (a novel about Artaud)
Diamond Nebula
Dorian (a sequel to The Picture of Dorian Grey)
Boy Caesar
The Grid
Here Comes the Nice
POETRY:
Target
A Long Shot to Heaven
The Isthmus of Samuel Greenberg (1976)
Saints & Psychotics
Bleecker Street (1980)
A Man Afraid
By the Fisheries (1984)
Nero (1985)
Selected Poems (1987)
Engaging Form (1988)
Nineties (1990)
Brigitte’s Blue Heart
Claudia Schiffer’s Red Shoes
Turkish Delight
Red Haired Android (1992)
Kicks (1994)
Sweet Sister Lyric (1996)
Saint Billie (2000)
Black Sugar
Patron Saint of Eyeliner (2000)
Dicing For Pearls
Heartbreak Hotel (2002)
Duck and Sally Inside (2006)
Orange Sunshine (2006)
This is How You Disappear (2007)
Bona Drag (2009)
West End Survival Kit (2009)
Black Russian: Out-Takes 1978-9 (2010)
Piccadilly Bongo (2010)
Bona Vada (2011)
Whitehall Jackals (with Chris McCabe) (2013)
Nothing But a Star (2013)
The Glamour Poet Versus Francis Bacon (2014)
Sooner or Later Frank (2015)
Voodoo Excess (Rolling with the Stones) (2015)
Red Light Blues (2016)
TRANSLATIONS:
The Coastguard’s House (Eugenio Montale)
Tempest of Stars (Jean Cocteau)
The Complete Poems (Jean Genet)
Praries of Fever (Ibrahim Nasrallah)
All That’s Left to You (Ghassan Kanafani)
On Entering the Sea (Nizar Qabbani)
The Sheltered Quarter (Hamza Bogary)
Hymn to the Night (Novalis)
NON-FICTION
Heart on my Sleeve
Madness: The Price of Poetry
Angels, Divas and Blacklisted Heroes
Caligula – Divine Carnage (with Stephen Barber)
Dead Brides (Edgar Allan Poe) – Introduction
Through the Looking-Glass (Lewis Carroll) – Introduction
The Songs of Maldoror (Lautreamont) – Postscript
Lipstick, Sex and Poetry (autobiography)
Bitter Blue (autobiography)
4 Poets & A Play (John Ashbery, Thom Gunn, John Weiners, Francis Bacon) (2012)
The Dilly – A History of Piccadilly Rent Boys (2014)
POETRY/PHOTOGRAPHY
Pop Stars (1995) – with Mick Rock
Big Orange Day (2010) – with Lisa Wilkerson
Exploding into Colour (2012) – with Lisa Wilkerson
BIOGRAPHIES:
The Last Star (Marc Almond
Another Tear Falls (Scott Walker)
Waiting For the Man (Lou Reed)
The Last Decadent (Brian Jones)
Born to Lose (Jean Genet)
Delirium (Arthur Rimbaud)
A Stranger on Earth (Anna Kavan)
The King of Carnaby Street (John Stephen)
Jeremy Reed collaborates with musician/dj/electronica maestro Itchy Ear on a performance poetry/music/spoken word project called The Ginger Light.
I would recommend listening to The Ginger Light or reading one of the above books. Jeremy Reed is a unique voice in literature. His work seems to be a fusion of the decadent, the erotic and the surreal. He is definitely worth reading.
R J Dent 