My Secret Life (Harper Perennial Forbidden Classics)

‘My Secret Life’ is a dark work of Victorian erotica, and an explicit memoir of unspoken desires in the English class system – encapsulating the joy of hidden sins in an age of moral fervour. Would you undress with the curtains open? A champagne-drinking Victorian traveller, Walter is lascivious, obnoxious and possessed of an insatiable sexual appetite. Through a bawdy catalogue of indecent scenarios with maids, widows and wenches, he solicits an indulgent exploration of the flesh. His obsessions, fantasies and voyeuristic tendencies are explored and revealed within this diary – one of the most famous examples of Victorian erotic literature from the decadent era. Only six copies of ‘My Secret Life’ were initially printed in 1888. Attempts to republish the book resulted in the novel being repeatedly banned.