It has therefore gained importance as a social document. For many years it has remained the only source of information on the prostitute quarters of London, where the author had spent many hours. My Secret Life My Secret Life – book Summary a b Sutherland, John, ed. (2009). The Longman companion to Victorian fiction. Pearson Longman. p.515. ISBN 978-1-4082-0390-3. Oho I—oho !-oho !" said she bursting into tears, "what a shame to take liberties with a poor girl when she can't help herself, — oho !—oho !—you must be a bad man, — Missus had no business to send you to look after me, as if she could not trust me, — she don't know what sort of man you are, — and a gentleman too, — oho !—and married too, — it's a shame, — oho ! —oho ! I don't believe you though, — oho—o--o." And when I told her again the colour and the make of her garters, she nearly howled. "You mean man to do such a thing when I was ill." It had weighted on my mind ever since I had had her, and about three weeks afterwards I told her my doubts of her then being a virgin. She swore that no man had even pupt his hands on it till I did. "Am I different from other woman?" She was indignant at the doubt, and honestly and truly I believe. A school-fellow used to look at her quim, she at her schoolfellow's, she always thought hers was the most open of the two, she always could put her finger up easily. "but you did hurt me through, though I did not bleed. My sister says she did bleed a little when she first had her husband", — and Jenny now described her sister's first night, and her sister's form, and rather wetted my lust for her sister. I cannot recollect the name of Molly's swain, though I have tried hard, so call him Giles, it is a bumpkin's name.

saw her after his visit she felt herself a deceiving wretch, and cried. Now would I please desist, and not make her sin any more. But the persuasion was too great, the recollection of her pleasure too strong, and never did I go away without having plugged her. I’ve tried to imbue my Victorian streets with this sense of moral relativity: the sliding scale between the lady seeking marriage and the street woman seeking trade. of the others." "What others?" "The young ones." "How many?" "Two, one's a boy, and one's a gal." "How old?" "Sister's about six, and Autumn was coming. As I could not then get leave of absence, my mother with my sister from school, and little brother, went without me on a visit to my aunt in H—f—shire, leaving an old female relative who was very deaf, to take charge in her absence. Cautioning her especially to make me comfortable, and look sharp after the servants, she said that she could not bear them and would perhaps dismiss them on her return; for she had heard them using foul language to each other. I heard this.

It's my fate to have sisters, how curious ! and thrice to have had the clap, and yet not three-andtwenty, how hard! The most commonly suggested author is Henry Spencer Ashbee (1834–1900). He was a book collector, writer, and bibliographer and, from the three volumes he published under his pseudonym Pisanus Fraxi, the expert on erotic books in his day. Gershon Legman was the first to link "Walter" and Ashbee, in his introduction to the 1962 reprints of Ashbee's bibliographies, and the 1966 Grove Press edition of My Secret Life included an expanded version of that essay. Ashbee was also identified as Walter by a May 2000, Channel 4 documentary on British TV, Walter: The Secret Life of a Victorian Pornographer – and in 2001 Ian Gibson's The Erotomaniac: The Secret Life of Henry Spencer Ashbee (2001, ISBN 0-571-19619-5) provided a detailed review of circumstantial evidence arguing that Ashbee wrote My Secret Life, presumably weaving fantasy and anecdotes from friends in with his own real-life experiences. If Ashbee was not the actual author, it is suggested that he may well have been the compiler of the work's lengthy, detailed, and very imperfect index, and have provided other editorial assistance and help in getting the book into print. [6] when I would be at the end of the lane, and found them standing there, by accident they said, they declared they had not had my letter. That It was the good fortune of her married sister to give me one of the most laughable, but yet natural, salacious, voluptuous treats I ever had, without her knowing she had done so,---and from that came con-sequences which affected that lady herself.

Did she love her young man? Yes she supposed she did; he was kind, attentive, and would make a good husband. She wanted to get married, to have a home of her own; besides he was not a workman, but a tradesman, and when married they would have a shop, and be in a higher position. She always spoke more of the house and shop, and her liberty, than of her young man. Jenny was fond of finery, and I had heard the old lady of the house declaiming about it. Her pleasure In the USA it was finally published without censorship in 1966 by Grove Press, but in 1969 a British printer, Arthur Dobson, was sentenced to two years' prison for producing a UK reprint. It was not until 1995 that the work in its entirety was published openly in the UK, by Arrow Books. I tried to comfort her, told facts, and many inventions of my own, of how I had had women, who after-wards married and whose husbands had never known that they had been broached.Private Case, Public Scandal by Peter Fryer was the peculiar tome that pointed me to the explosion in the Victorian erotic book trade and the penumbrous underworld of the mysterious Walter. To my annoyance she cane with her sister. "I could not stop out late without her", said she. I made the When I heard of this arrangement I lusted strongly. In vain I said to myself, "What again a married woman ! in comfortable circumstances for her class, with two children, — a woman you have never spoken to, —can you expect to get her!" I did not expect it, but had a burning desire to sec and speak to her, to look closely at, and have a chat with a woman whose privates I had seen so nakedly. It seemed to me to promise a tittillating treat. Besides I had been so successful with women, — gay women had even been anxious to get me, — that a half-belief came over me, that if I

Jenny's cunt was well-haired, and had rather large inner lips; not so large as I have seen in many women, but larger than I liked. Her tube was easy. What a fight I had when first I saw it. "I won't be pulled about like that, — no it's shameful." "I dare say your John has seen it." That always sent her off howling, and when she had subsided she let me do as I liked. "It's a nasty thing to pull me about like that." But it came soon to the old world-wide habit: a feel and a look before the entry. The same woman who won't let you see the bottom of her belly at first, will hold her cunt open for your inspection in a month. It is breaking in a woman to baudiness which is the happiness of the honeymoon, not the hard burst through a bit of gristle. My position was a fatiguing one, I was half on, half off the sofa; hers was but little less so, yet as long as our privates would keep together, we kept them so. I poured out my love to her, and joyed to hear from her that she loved me still. But our position could not last for ever; gradually I slipped off. My prolonged embrace, my sensuous imagination, and my love for her had told so upon me; that I was already contemplating the pleasure of another poke, a desire to see her charms came over me, I went on to my knees and had a glimpse between the open thighs, of the half open cu*t, from which a love-drop was rolling. She pushed down her clothes, and sat up, looking at me, and blushing like the most modest of maidens. all because she was trying to save money, to quit that life she hoped, and I believed it. I could not get her for several days, yet could In the twentieth century My Secret Life was pirated and reprinted in a number of abridged versions that were frequently suppressed for obscenity. In 1932, for example, a New York publisher was arrested for issuing the first three volumes. Once she was awfully uneasy, for her courses had not come on, and shed flood of tears. She would lose

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Cook gave me unasked her opinion, that Harriet would let me sleep with her. Instigated by her, I asked Harriet how I looked naked. She did not reply, and went downstairs. I overheard them quarrelling. Afterwards I asked her before the cook. She did not know what I meant, she said. I then asked the cook if she had not been looking at me through the key-hole. Cook laughed saying, "He caught you, Harriet once, he caught you." "You are a liar", said Harriet. "Oh! if it comes to that", said cook, "we have both seen you naked a dozen times." There was •a row interrupted by my deaf relative coming home. The same afternoon cook whispered to me, "Come to our room when we are both in bed." It is a document created for over forty years, hence, making an interesting psychological document as well. Who is the author of My Secret Life? the street-door holding it open, though I had entered the hall. I turned, closed the door, and caught hold of her. Well he got into bed with me saying, 'It's cold, -and it were, let's lay here, it will be no harm, no one will know.' I said I would naked." "You shan't." "Well stand up, and let me see your limbs naked, take off your petticoats, even if you keep your chemise on." She was