Women of Victorian Erotica

Victorian erotica is remarkable for offering some of the bawdiest, most creative and most arousing stories in the history of the English language. Even more remarkable is the variety and allure of the women who populate these stories. Sandwiched in literary history between the famous erotic heroines of Fanny Hill and Lady Chatterley, these women represent their own apotheosis of sexual liberation and experimentation. Outrageously sexy and unhampered by modern conservatism, they search high and low in search of sexual bliss and erotic experience. Their stories can be found in every genre of writing, from travelogues to how-to guides, and from poetry to drama; and their experiences span every facet of sexuality, including lesbian and bisexual, group sex and orgies, sadism and masochism, cross-dressing and gender-bending, and others that defy categorization. In their adventures, these Victorian woman encounter a cross-section of the nineteenth century world: everyone from ladies and gentlemen to streetwalkers and maids; from nuns and priests to sultans and tribal chieftains; from headmasters and governesses to dukes and princes. Considered as a group, the women of Victorian erotica are in the enviable position of enjoying some of the most outrageous sexual exploits ever represented in literature.