My Secret Life: The Sex Diaries of a Victorian Gentleman: Early Memories, Volume One

Although a fictional biography, Early Memories provides an insight into the grim world of Victorian prostitution. Colored by fantasy and sexual debauchery, this graphic account has long been hailed as a valuable insight into the reality of those times. My Secret Life was first printed in a private edition of 11 volumes, beginning around 1888. Later attempts to publish the work commercially resulted in it being repeatedly banned as obscene and pornographic. In 1932, for example, a New York publisher was arrested for issuing three volumes. It was finally issued successfully by Grove Press in New York in 1966. It wasn't until 1994 that the work in its entirety was published.