Lust romance or early reading experience. "Close your eyes and think about your homeland"

The Secret Book of English Classics The most interesting book in a foreign language is the untranslated book. The highlight of the English classics in this sense is "My secret life", written by an unknown author in the last third of the 19th century. The book was first published anonymously in 1888. Who wrote it is still controversial. A significant number of researchers believe that the author is Henry Spencer Ashby, a textile merchant, traveler, passionate second-hand bookseller and collector of erotica, who died in 1900. He was part of the circle of Victorian free-thinkers ...

To spare - to destroy, or games with male destinies Yulia Shilova

You can’t talk, and even more so flirt with strangers, says one of the rules of good form in the Victorian era. Modern girls find such prohibitions ridiculous and hopelessly outdated. And in vain ... Alina pulled up at a traffic light and smiled sweetly at the imposing man from the jeep that stopped nearby. Oh, she better not do that! True, she will understand this later, when a random fellow traveler rushes into her apartment with a pistol and takes her to a deep forest. Without money, without documents, in one light robe, Alina runs out onto the country road ...

Eye of the Fleet Richard Woodman

To date, the pen of Richard Woodman owns about two dozen works, including fourteen volumes of the series about Nathaniel Drinkwater and a book about the naval service of Trinity House - "Keepers of the Sea". He also wrote "The History of the Ship", various studies about the Second World War, about the Arctic and Maltese convoys, as well as the fascinating history of the frigate war during the French Revolution - "Warriors of the Sea". Woodman has been addicted to sailing since childhood. He gained experience in directing a ship with straight rigging while sailing ...

Emma Brown Charlotte Brontë

In 1854, Charlotte Brontë wrote two chapters of her new novel, Emma, but she never finished it - on March 31, 1855, she died of premature birth. Many years later, Claire Boylen, an Irish writer and journalist, finished the novel, rewarding it with a complex and intricate plot, which tells about the fate of the girl Emma, who has to survive on the streets of Victorian London. Debauchery, poverty, child prostitution, cowardice are the main themes of the novel. Before sitting down to write a sequel to the novel, Claire Boylen, in her own words, ...

Owner John Galsworthy

The Forsyte Saga by the famous English writer J. Galsworthy (1867 - 1933) is an epic about the fate of the English bourgeois family, which is a realistic picture of the mores of the Victorian era. The Owner, the first novel of the cycle, tells of a century when the ancestral instinct was the main driving force. But no family foundations, home and property can resist the chaos that Beauty and Passion brings to a person's life.

White Monkey John Galsworthy

The Forsyte Saga by the famous English writer J. Galsworthy (1867 - 1933) is an epic about the fate of the English bourgeois family, which is a realistic picture of the mores of the Victorian era. "White Ape" is the story of the second generation of the Forsyte family, who had already overcome the prejudices of the Victorian era, but hopelessly entangled in the joyous, hedonistic madness of the "new age" ...

Blood ties Dan Waddell

A mysterious maniac cuts off the victims' hands and carves strange combinations of letters and numbers on their chests. Detective Grant Foster, leading the case, established that the bloody inscriptions are registration numbers of birth, death and marriage certificates. Grant Foster turns to renowned genealogist and historian Nigel Barnes for help. During the investigation, Foster and Barnes come to unexpected conclusions: the maniac is exactly copying a series of five murders, for the commission of which one Ike Fireben was hanged ... back in 1879! Why…

Barchester Towers Anthony Trollope

The novel by Anthony Trollope (1815-1882), a famous English writer of the Victorian era, is dedicated to the life of the clergy and continues the gallery of classic images of English Enlightenment literature created by Fielding, Goldsmith, Stern and others. High artistic skill, vitality of characters and everyday details, good-natured humor and sly irony rightfully acquired the "Barchester Towers" fame as a classic monument of English literature.

Atlantis. Battle of Light and Darkness Patricia Corey

The second volume of the trilogy, Atlantis, helps us free ourselves from our most difficult memories of the Atlantic era and gives us the knowledge that the Sirians believe will allow us to free ourselves from the power structures that now rule the world and make positive changes that the Earth desperately needs.

Lumas' Obsession Scarlett Thomas

Young graduate student Ariel Manteau loves old books. Once, looking into an inconspicuous second-hand bookstore, she discovers a real treasure - an essay by the semi-scandalous scientist of the Victorian era, Thomas Lumas, which describes the secret of penetrating into another reality. Time travel, telepathy, insight into the future - anything is possible if you know the recipe. Ariel lays out all her money for the precious volume, not suspecting that the possession of a rarity will not only tempt her to try Lumas's methods on herself, but will also call to her ...

What was and what was not Sergei Rafalsky

Statistics - among other things, it can be read in very different ways. It is not for nothing that there is a proverb in the USSR: there is a crude lie, there is a subtle lie, and there are statistics ... You are finally reading the memories of the era described in this book by its author, Sergei Milievich Rafalsky (1895-1981). Memoirs of A.F. Kerensky - and L.D. Trotsky, P.N. Milyukov - and Sukhanov, gene. AI Denikin - and, say, Count Ignatiev ... But all these figures of those years, willingly or unwillingly, consciously or unconsciously, strive first of all to justify themselves “in the face of history” ...

Heir to the Stars Ilya Gutman

This novel is a continuation of my previous book Steel and Flame, but at the same time it is an independent work that does not require reading the first book. The genre is a traditional epic fantasy with elements of Slavic and ironic. Apion Grant, a paladin with a criminal past, an inhabitant of a world where technology and magic lived side by side, saves his homeland from a magical catastrophe by stealing a Chaos rocket (a magical analogue of nuclear weapons) and, fearing persecution from demonic warriors, squeezes himself out of the tissue of his native the world, and the paths ...

Poems by Alfred Tennyson

English author, a prominent representative of the Victorian era in poetry. Tennyson's works were melancholy and reflected the moral and intellectual values of their time, making them particularly vulnerable to later criticism. Lord Alfred Tennyson was born in Somersby, Lincolnshire. Alfred began writing poetry at an early age, imitating Lord Byron. Tennyson attended Trinity College, Cambridge, where he joined the Apostles literary club and met Arthur Hallam, who became his closest friend. His first ...

Attempted masterpiece by David Dickinson

The third novel by the famous English writer David Dickinson about the adventures of Lord Powerscourt (the two previous ones have already been introduced to Russian readers by the SLOVO publishing house). The Victorian era is still in full swing, the British are at war with the Boers, and the "New Americans", who made huge money on oil and railways, want to join the European culture. One by one, they travel to London for paintings by old Italian and English masters to decorate their luxurious mansions. Enterprising merchants are happy to "sell" ...

Yen Beck Past Park

In this London it is always either raining or there is a fog, through which the yellowish light of gas lamps barely breaks through. In this London, time stood forever in the Victorian era - the era of cabs, street rags, bobby police in leather helmets and the infamous Whitechapel moths. In this London lives the beautiful Eva, who does not even suspect that her hometown is just a giant theme amusement park, where bored people of the middle of the XXI century take a break from their stuffy reality, and she herself was created with the help of cloning, ...

"Victorian morality called for a strict separation of men and women. Even books written by male authors were not put on the shelf where the works of women were already. Some women refused to sleep in rooms where portraits of men were hung on the walls. Piano legs, in turn , covered up out of bashfulness - their curves could remind of the seductiveness of women's legs ... In addition, Victorian etiquette expelled all references to sexuality from the language. Therefore, reading French novels was considered indecent. Women also could not use words such as "gender" or "panties ", And the topic of underwear was taboo in a decent society.

In turn, it was said about pregnant women and women in childbirth that they "left for the village." No mention of erogenous zones was allowed, so the body from head to chest was called "bust", and everything that was below was vaguely called "belly", which was not supposed to be talked about. The most that Victorians could afford was occasional whispering about "twins", "sausages" and "hot desserts." Young couples should not be alone. It is customary to display wedding gifts on a separate table - everything, except for the linen donated by the newlywed, must be hidden immediately. This sight can shock the groom, and the poor bride will blush from shame like cancer.

It was believed that an honest woman could not have any carnal desires. Typically, women were advised to keep their eyes closed and think about their homeland during intercourse.

Sylvania Stall's 1897 textbook, What a Young Man Needs to Know, emphasizes that sex can be done at most once a week in a dark room. Partners should never undress together. And yet, if etiquette guides alone are to be believed, our understanding of Victorians will be limited. Their double morality is unadorned by the fact that never in London there were so many brothels as in that era. In other words, in civilized circles and in public, sex was a taboo topic, but behind the scenes, a completely different picture was observed. Baroness Staff knew this, too, who gave advice on how a good wife should feel about the fact that her husband spends time in brothels: “Never talk about your suspicions. Perhaps you are unhappy and your heart is broken into a thousand pieces, but not look for consolation on the side: it is dangerous, and your life can be filled with sin. Better engage in raising children. "

(from the book: A. Turunen Only After You: A World History of Good Manners / Translated from Fin. - M .: Alpina Publisher, 2019).

Frivolous literature, with an erotic principle in its foundation, has always assumed freedom of expression and freedom of thought, as such. Its emergence can be directly related to the emergence of writing, and even mass distribution - with the development of book printing in the 15th century. At the same time, the first surviving experiments in this literary field concern erotic poetry (especially ancient Greek and Roman): from the lyrics of Sappho, Catullus, Ovid and Juvenal to the poetic kissing of John Secundus.

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The phrase “frivolous prose” appeared only in the 17th century, although formally it can include works of earlier periods: from “Song of Songs” from the Old Testament to the medieval “Decameron” by Boccaccio. However, the true standards were established only in the eighteenth century. It was then that the works of John Cleland, Denis Diderot, Choderlos de Laclos, and later the Marquis de Sade were published. Over the four centuries, the plot foundations of this genre have changed little, perhaps, the stylistic boundaries have somewhat expanded.

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The desire to consider this phenomenon in a cross-section and prompted the creation of this material, although attempts to compile a list of "The most candid books" have already been made. But American literary critics and publishers of erotic magazines “sinned” with this. And therefore, such lists often showed tendentiousness or, even worse, the popularization of "local" fiction. Realizing the fact that absolute objectivity in such collections is practically impossible, a certain attempt was made to move away from excessive bias. In addition, in order to avoid accusations of authoritarianism and some kind of rating systematization, the books are arranged chronologically by date of publication.

Fanny Hill, or Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure

About what: The story of a naive provincial who first came to London. A series of erotic adventures as a woman for pleasure, nevertheless, does not prevent the young heroine from finding and finding true love. The book is written in the first person and in bright colors depicts the everyday life of a brothel and the work of courtesans in every detail.

Why: The novel by the English writer John Cleland has long earned the reputation of a frivolous and obscene book in the history of literature. In America, this novel was under censorship for more than two hundred years, and only in the 1960s was it “amnestied” in court as a talented literary work that does not offend public morality. The narrative, presented with frankness unprecedented for that time, is a bold immersion in the diversity of sensory experience. The author's text is full of subtle irony and metaphor.

Quote: "We saw how satisfaction flashed in her eyes when the gentleman introduced into her a plenipotentiary representative of his fury, how it flared up while he penetrated to the very limit, how, finally, it shone during his violent convulsions."

Dangerous Liaisons / Les liaisons dangereuses

Choderlos de Laclos
First publication: Amsterdam and Paris, 1782

About what : The heroes of the novel in the letters of the French officer Pierre Chauderlos de Laclos - Parisian aristocrats, the Viscount de Valmont and the Marquis de Merteuil, come up with an intrigue to seduce the young Cecile de Volange, who has just left the convent school. The correspondence in the book, according to the author's assurances, is the real correspondence of secular characters of that time.

Why: The emergence of "Dangerous Liaisons" was accompanied by success and, not surprisingly, by a scandal. The success was explained by the exceptional merits of the book itself, which was later called a world masterpiece, and the scandal arose because the ubiquitous criticism and public opinion considered the novel indecent and ... pornographic. The book described in detail the morals and customs of secular living rooms, love and war of whims, manipulations, methods of seduction and other love vicissitudes. The writer was accused of licentiousness and admiration for vice. It was because of this that the doors of many of the capital's salons were closed in front of Laclos and even his military career was at stake.

Quote: “The first truth is that every woman who agrees to conduct an acquaintance with an immoral man becomes his victim. The second is that every mother, who allows her daughter to show some other woman more confidence than herself, is acting inadvertently at best. ”

Teleny or The Reverse of the Medal

Oscar Wilde
First publication: London, 1893

About what: A love story of two young people, described in all psychological, anatomical and erotic details.

Why: An erotic novel, which, on the basis of numerous indirect data, is attributed to the great English witty writer, the head of European aestheticism and symbolism, Oscar Wilde. It was published anonymously in 1893, three years after The Portrait of Dorian Gray, and has since been considered an absolute masterpiece in its genre. According to another version, this gay novel was created by a group of young people under the general leadership of Wilde (which, however, does not diminish his artistic merit).

Quote: “There are two types of lust. Both are equally strong and irresistible. The first type is a hot, burning, sensual passion that flares up in the genitals and rises to the brain, forcing people to bathe in joy, feeling in their souls the winged divine power that soars above the earth. The second is the cold bilious passion of the imagination, an acute inflammation of the brain that drains the blood, as if a young hop is in wine. "

Lady Chatterley's Lover

David Herbert Lawrence
First publication: Florence, 1928

About what: In the story, twenty-two-year-old Constance Reid suffers, being married to the paralyzed Baronet Clifford Chatterley. The girl, feeling moral and physical dissatisfaction, finds solace in her relationship with the forester Oliver Mellers. With him, she liberates herself and for the first time realizes what it means to love deeply and sensually and to be loved.

Why: Lawrence's last novel, published by a private Italian publishing house in 1928, was a kind of spit on puritanism and bigotry. The writer's ethical liberalism, his conviction that every person is given the right to free moral choice, did not please many representatives of the so-called nobility. The intensity of passions and the brightness of the love scenes of this novel were perceived by the guardians of morality as a challenge to public opinion. The book was banned immediately after its publication, and the finished edition was confiscated and destroyed. The ban was in effect for more than 30 years, and only in 1960, after a high-profile trial, the novel was rehabilitated, and since then it has remained one of the most widely read in the world.

Quote: “True marriage rests on the union of blood. The phallus is a column of blood. And he fills the valley of the woman's blood. The great flow of male blood rushes to the very sources of the great flow of female blood - not invading, but within its limits. "

Lono Irene / Le Con d'Irène

Louis Aragon
First publication: Paris, 1928

About what: Everyday life of a young man who, after breaking up with his passion, decided to stay a little in his parents' house. The emotional drama, coupled with the boredom prevailing in a provincial town, maintain an atmosphere of constant uneasiness in the 25-year-old hero. The steamy fantasies that haunt the young man in his dreams often burst outward, taking on hypertrophied erotic forms.

Why: “This is the best, most beautiful text that touches on eroticism,” said Albert Camus about the book. And sometimes it's hard to believe that this erotic opus is the work of one of the "creators of socialist realism." However, the truth is that in the early 1920s, the future communist Louis Aragon was associated with surrealists who opposed conventional wisdom and values. Often, their books were published clandestinely and sold in specialty stores, displayed not on the shelves, but under them. The book, being in a sense a portrait of the author's youth, was published under a pseudonym (with a circulation of only 150 copies). "Lono Irene" is a part of "Defense of Infinity" that has survived to this day, one of the most controversial works of our time. It is no wonder that when in 1968 Jean-Jacques Povert wanted to republish the book under the real name of the author, Aragon, to whom he applied for permission, answered him exclusively in the third person: "... the author refuses ... the author forbids ... for the author it is impossible ...", thus, as if underlining once again his innocence in the creation of this text.

Quote: “O sweet bosom of Irene! So tiny and so priceless! Only here a man worthy of you can finally achieve the fulfillment of all his desires. "

Tropic of Cancer

Henry Miller
First publication: Paris, 1934

About what: Until now, there is no consensus about what genre the Tropic of Cancer can be attributed to: documentary, fiction or autobiographical prose. However, each of the versions is not devoid of plausibility. The poetic narrative about the "Parisian" period of Henry Miller's life is initially multi-layered.

The whole world is concentrated in a second of orgasm. Our land is not a dry, healthy and comfortable plateau, but a huge female with a velvet body, which breathes, trembles and suffers under the raging ocean ...

Why: "Pornographer", "sexist", "male aggressor" are the usual epithets that characterized Henry Miller after the publication of this novel. At the same time, the writer received a lot of praise, including from such literary authorities as Thomas Eliot, Norman Mailer, George Orwell, Ezra Pound. The last of them, by the way, belongs to the catch phrase: "Here is an indecent book that deserves to be read." But the first wave of popularity in Miller's homeland rose there only a decade after its publication, when American soldiers, finding themselves in Paris, completely sold out the entire English circulation. And another fifteen years passed before the book was finally decided to be published in the States, and even then - the publishers had to endure more than fifty lawsuits (of course, on charges of moral corruption). Nowadays, volumes of research have been written about it, it is studied in universities and is constantly reprinted.

Quote: “Do what you want, but let what you have done bring joy. Do what you want, but let it cause ecstasy. When I repeat these words, thousands of images come into my head - funny, terrible, maddening: a wolf and a goat, a spider, a crab ... and a womb with a hinged door, always open and ready to swallow everything ... ".

Our Lady of Flowers / Notre Dame des Fleurs

Jean Genet
First publication: Paris, 1943

About what: The novel reveals the life story of a transvestite prostitute Divina (derived from the French - Divine). At the beginning of the novel, Divina dies of tuberculosis, and ultimately is ranked among the saints.

Why: The debut novel was written by Jean Genet in prison, where he served another term for stealing from a bookstore a volume of Marcel Proust, still unknown to him. The narrative of the life of the Parisian bottom is largely autobiographical. Covering the topics of homosexuality and crime, which were severely taboo in the middle of the 20th century, against the will of the writer, made Zhenet one of the symbols and inspirers of the gay movement for equality.

Quote: “Her body showed itself every second. It manifested itself in a thousand bodies. Nobody knew what was happening, and did not know about the tragic moments of Divina fighting with God. "

Inaccessible Emmeline Suzanne Forster

Your hottest fantasies will come true ... Your most secret dreams will come true ... Here are four stories written by the masters of a modern love story. Four stories of love - and passion, feelings - and sensuality, joy - and pleasure. Do you think our days are devoid of romance? So you haven't read this wonderful book yet!

Waiting for Prince Patricia Horst

Seven long years have passed since the divorce of Tessa and Tyler. Having met again, they understand that they still love each other, but it is not so easy to forget past grievances. Will they be able to use the second chance given by fate, and, in spite of everything, be together again or love will fail again?

The Incredible Shrinking Man Richard Matheson

The story of a man who, under the influence of radiation and insecticides, begins to inexorably decrease to microscopic proportions. The fame of R. Matheson truly knows no bounds: his works have been translated into many languages of the world, films based on his scripts, shot by such eminent directors as Roger Corman, Steven Spielberg and others, have long become classics of cinema. No wonder Ray Bradbury called R. Matheson one of the most important writers of the 20th century, and Stephen King argued that this author had the greatest influence on him. R.'s creativity ...

Barabbas. The Tale of the Times of Christ Maria Corelli

An artistic story about the fate of the biblical Barabbas. The drama of two thousand years ago, which influenced the history of all mankind, described in the book, opens before us a picture played out in Jerusalem, first as a tragedy, and then as a great joy for the apostles and all sincere believers in Palestine. The story is presented as if this is happening now before our eyes, and each of us is a direct participant in certain scenes. Reading this book, you immediately understand why the Jews crucified Christ. The events of distant antiquity have become ...

Word in modern texts and dictionaries Leonid Krysin

The book is devoted to the processes taking place in the Russian language at the turn of the XX-XXI centuries. It is a collection of essays, grouped thematically. The first part of the book is essays on foreign language borrowings, their properties, their relationship with the original Russian (or previously borrowed) vocabulary, their “behavior” in the language, on the ways and forms of describing foreign words and special terms in modern explanatory dictionaries. The second part contains articles devoted to the literary norm - its nature, its relationship, on the one hand, ...

Cure for insomnia Andrey Kurpatov

"Remedy for insomnia" is a unique practical guide that simply, accessible and substantively talks about sleep disorders and how to deal with this problem. Sleep disorders include: difficulty falling asleep, shallow sleep, night (or early morning) awakening, daytime sleepiness, nightmares, etc. In this book you will find a detailed description of the causes of insomnia, as well as a list of effective psychotherapeutic techniques to get rid of it. The author of the book, Andrey Kurpatov, is a unique and authoritative expert, ...

The Stones Keep Silent by Diana Cooper

Diana Cooper. The world famous psychic healer, visionary and medium, writer and publicist. Diana Cooper's books have helped thousands of people find the purpose and meaning of life, to realize their spiritual purpose. Two women who accidentally received from the hands of a dying Tibetan monk a mysterious manuscript of the ancient, mythical Atlantis ... Attempts to translate the message of the Atlanteans - and give humanity their Spiritual Knowledge ... Fantasy? Mystic? Or - a genuine experience of an encounter with the Unknown? - Mysterious Manuscript - Key to Healing - New Forces of the Earth ...

Astral Dynamics Robert Bruce

Support Group. First Evil Robert Stein

Support Group. The Second Evil Robert Stein

Accidents, mysterious accidents, nightmarish attacks and grisly murders all happen to the members of the Shadeyside School cheerleading group. Who hunts girls in empty school corridors - a maniac, an evil spirit or a ghost? Start reading and feel the chilling horror and otherworldly fear. This book will be of interest to fans of action-packed prose and to all those who, having become adults, have not forgotten how to believe in the mysterious and are still afraid of the dark ...

Support Group. The Third Evil Robert Stein

Support Group. New Evil Robert Stein

Astral dynamics. Theory and Practice of the Out-of-Body ... Robert Bruce

If you are interested in the topic of astral projection, lucid dreaming and awareness raising in general, this book is for you. In one book, Robert Bruce has collected personal experience, recommendations, solutions to common mistakes and a theoretical overview of the non-physical structure of our complex multidimensional life. Whether you are a skeptic or a veteran of astral travel, a beginner or a lover of other people's stories, here you will find a lot of interesting things. This simply amazing, priceless book can allow almost everyone, regardless of their spiritual or metaphysical experience, to achieve conscious ...