The Altar of Venus: The Erotic Education of an Edwardian Gentleman

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The ecstasy! The feeling of two organs inside at once - almost touching each other too! It was almost too much pleasure to sustain at once. But I persisted, wriggling onto both members fully. Ralph placed his hands on my breasts, pinching my rather sore nipples - but rather than asking him to desist, I urged him to squeeze harder. The genre had a lasting impact on cultural perceptions around sexuality and relationships. Challenging taboos and questioning societal norms contributed to a more open and nuanced understanding of human sexuality. In What Belongs to You, the narrator reminisces about an early sexual encounter: As a youth, he was forced to watch a boy he loved fool around with a girlfriend. The narrator, hurt but aroused, recalls the "combination of exclusion and desire I felt in his room, beneath the pain of exclusion the satisfaction of desire." Sometimes, he says, "I think it's the only thing I've sought." Now teaching in Bulgaria, the young American finds the exclusion and desire he was looking for in Mitko, an endearing hustler he pays for sex. Their relationship ultimately reveals "how helpless desire is outside its little theater of heat."

Thus begins what many readers still refer to as a classic erotic novel. Written as a personal memoir penned by an English lady of easy virtue, *Fanny Hill* was the subject of the first U.S. obscenity trial in 1821. While *Fanny Hill* predates the Victorian period, it was the first book of its kind and set much of the tone and style for future erotic tales. (This is sort of one of those literary jokes in itself, since *Fanny Hill* was written as a parody of *Moll Flanders* a book which was written by Daniel Defoe, the same author who wrote *Robinson Crusooe*. While *Moll Flanders* was written as Defoe's puritanical if justifiable condemnation of the prostitution and pornography which was rampant in eighteenth-century London, *Fanny Hill* is both erotic and funny, taking a more lenient attitude toward the expression of human sexuality. Ovid, Apuleius and Catullus. The graphic details, however, were read for the gratuitous delectation of those more prone to perpetuate the vice rather than seek its supression, thus its popularity amongst those educated Victorian gentlmen. Women began engaging with literature as consumers and creators, including in erotic literature. This shift challenged the male-dominated narrative and introduced new perspectives and voices into the genre.Tentatively, I asked him how male members became aroused. Ralph informed me there were a number of stimulants; sight, smell, thought or touch all produced a state of arousal, although touch was by far the most effective. I asked if he touched his own parts, and he admitted he had done so on a number of occasions, but it was nowhere near as satisfactory as when someone else touched it. These early 1920s erotic postcards originated in France, like the majority of similar sexually-charged postcards of the era. In the United States, all cards of this sort were known as "French Postcards," no matter where they originated. I suggested that, as we were alone (and I had no intention of looking) that he could act as though he were alone. He protested initially, but then agreed on my suggestion that we both do likewise, with neither of us observing the other. The Edwardian Era was a complex tapestry of social norms and structures, deeply influenced by the class system that had been a cornerstone of British society for centuries.

This extraordinary novel, a retelling of the Don Juan story, follows a rake's progress through Europe on the eve of the First World War. Written by the British art critic, essayist, and novelist Berger, who recently died at ninety, it's shot through with rich visual language, ominous invocations of the social and political forces about to tear the world apart, and erudite meditations on the nature of love, sex, and desire. Oh, and a few crude drawings of penises. While it’s difficult to pinpoint specific authors dedicated to erotic literature, many mainstream writers of the era dabbled in the genre. E. M. Forster, for instance, wrote “Maurice,” a novel with explicit homosexual themes, although it was published posthumously. Both men spent copiously then, pumping their hot seed into my warm orifice. I swallowed it all greedily. The intriguing world of Edwardian erotic literature, a genre that not only entertained but also defied the social norms of its time, offers a unique lens through which to explore the complexities of Edwardian society. According to literary critic and historian Elaine Showalter, “These works offer a unique window into the complexities of Edwardian society, exploring its fears and fantasies with an honesty often absent in mainstream literature.”Emboldened, I reached out a hand and took the item in question in my hand. I felt it pulsate, and then begin to grow. I turned my head to look at its changing proportions. As I did, I felt Ralph's hand slide along the inside of my thigh and come to rest on my moist most intimate parts. Involuntarily, my legs gaped open; when I felt Ralph's breath on me in the same place as his hand; I felt them spread further than I had ever spread them before. Of course, in any age, there isn't one single sexual rule. So Victorian medical journals basically say orgasms are bad, because they deplete your energy. And some women were even institutionalised for masturbating too much. But if you read through Victorian erotic literature, everyone's having orgasms. They're orgasm-crazy. Whereas in 2017, it's about the man having an orgasm over the woman's face, or if the woman does have an orgasm, it's a very kind of violently induced; he looks like he's strumming a guitar in fast-forward motion. This famous erotic and somewhat autobiographical work is actually the origin of the term masochism (for those who wonder, we can thank the Marquis de Sade for “sadism”). The protagonist, Severin, is infatuated by a beautiful woman and offers himself as her slave. Obsessed with his total submission to her, he urges the woman, Wanda, to humiliate and degrade him more and more cruelly as the story goes on. The book is focused on fetish and S&M, and remains very popular.

Kearney compiled the catalogue of The Private Case, the collection of books in the British Library not openly circulated.

From 1901 to 1910, the Edwardian Era was a transformative period in British history that ushered in significant social, cultural, and political changes. Marked by the reign of King Edward VII, this era was a time of optimism and progress, serving as a bridge between the Victorian age and the onset of the First World War.