Fetish in Literature

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Victorian Sexualities: The Role of Fetishism In 19 th Century Literature

The 19th century was a period of rapid social change. One may think of social change in the

Victorian period in terms of technological change; however there were also changes in demographics -

there was rapid population growth during much of 19th century, potentially due to the ardor concerning

sexuality. There were also major political changes, a growth in democratic fervor and a fear of revolution.

This relationship between capitalism and perversion became overt in the turn of the 19 th century, within

which any sexual bodily practices that weren’t procreative were labelled, thus giving way to the

classification of Fetishisms. In contemporary discourse, people exercise the word "sexuality” to make a

distinction between being gay and straight. Sexuality is far broader and deeper than this. Sexuality is the

capacity one has for carnality, consequently establishing Fetishism as a by-product of sexual character.

Fetishism is an extension of one’s sexuality, and is defined as interest in objects, body parts or situations,

not traditionally viewed as sexual. ‘Subdivision, classification, and elaboration, are certainly

distinguishing characteristics of the present era of civilization.’ 1(Cannibal Georga Sala). The Victorian

attitude seemed to be that if something could be categorised, it could therefore be controlled. Krafft-Ebing

deemed procreation as the purpose of sexual desire and that any form of recreational sex was a perversion

of the sex drive. This was in line with the assertion of the French psychiatrist, Alfred Binet, who had

coined the term ‘Fetishism’ as a perversion and believed it to be at the heart of sexual attraction.

At the height of the Victorian era, a daring enterprise of artists and thinkers frustrated the then

prevalent fascination with conventional conduct, denouncing the confines of sexual propriety in their lives

and work. This encouraged something of a cultural revolt - facilitating freedom of expression to be

exhausted behind the closed doors of many Victorians (upper middle class men), thus spawning an

abundance of Fetishism. Such radical perversion made way for an upsurge of extraordinary predilection,

from hair to flagellation, and societal to naval proclivity. Activities of this ilk are perpetual within the

literature that this case study explores. Pioneering texts primarily considered include Swinburne’s

pornographic poetry that champions flagellation, The Diaries of Arthur Munby and Hannah Cullwick,

1
George Augustus Henry Sala (2011). Pleasure Bound: Victorian Sex Rebels and the New Eroticism. London: W. W. Norton
& Company. 121
Robert Brownings’ Porphyria’s Lover, Oscar Wilde’s Dorian Gray and Stanisla de Rhodes’

Autobiography of a Flea. Through the rhetoric surrounding Fetishism, this essay aims to measure and

investigate what stimulated such deviance, and the ways in which it manifested in literature. By embracing

taboo, the aforementioned iconoclasts produced some of the most captivating art, literature, and ideas of

their day.

Literary Fetishism incorporates a wealth of themes and motifs; with one of the more prevalent

being that of Sadomasochism, the act of deriving pleasure, chiefly sexual gratification, from exacting pain,

suffering, or humiliation upon others and oneself; ‘The fact that psychological qualities can have the effect

of a fetish in a broader sense is demonstrated by the pathological facts of masochism and sadism’ 2. Sadism

and Masochism, construct a prevailing facet of Victorian Sexuality, and stem from Richard Freiherr von

Krafft-Ebing, whom coined the terms in his publication, Psychopathia Sexualis (1886) when discussing the

practice of flagellation. Sadism manifests through domination variants, and is wielded through mediums

such as gender, class, race and age, ‘Masochism is the counterpart of sadism in so far as it derives the

acme of pleasure from reckless acts of violence at the hands of the consort 3.’ Though an academic piece of

research, Psychopathia Sexualis also spread word of non-normative sexual practice and could thus be

considered pornographic.

One fundamental Victorian conduct concerned with sadistic power roles would be that of

Flagellation; the whipping or lashing of skin, often as punishment imposed upon an unwilling subject.

‘The propensity which the English most cherish is undoubtedly flagellation. 4’ (Swinburne)coinciding with

‘Vice Anglais’. This was more than likely the most common of sadomasochistic activity of the late 19 th

century; von Krafft-Ebing favours the belief that spanking is the cause of the first sexual excitation, thus

inciting masturbation – ‘on account of the dangers to which this form of punishment gives rise, it would be
5
better if parents, teachers and nurses were to avoid it entirely.’

Algernon Swinburne is a name symbiotic with flagellation, due to his innate fascination with the practice,

and subsequent works concerning flagellation as a central preposition, evidenced in his publications as a

2
R. von Krafft-Ebing (2012). Psychopathia Sexualis. New York: Forgotten Books . 90
3
R. von Krafft-Ebing (2012). Psychopathia Sexualis. New York: Forgotten Books . 52
4
Algernon Charles Swinburne (1995). The Whippingham Papers. London: Wordsworth Editions Ltd. 4
5
R. von Krafft-Ebing (2012). Psychopathia Sexualis. New York: Forgotten Books . 28
poet, playwright and novelist. As a proclaimed homosexual, and algolagnic, he was considered something

of a Uranian, a 19th century term used to define a third sex, ‘originally a female psyche in a man’s body’ 6.

His works were shocking to Victorian, once inherent, sensibilities. One particular poem of Algernon

Swinburne’s that demonstrates a preoccupation with flagellation is ‘Arthur’s Flogging’, which tells the

story of a young boy who’s fallen victim to the headmaster’s birch rod. ‘’Oh Birch! Thou common dread

and doom of all boys,’. 7The 52 stanza poem unremittingly allegorically narrates the merciless whipping

of a young boy. The length and exhaustiveness of the poem seems to be in alignment with the content, and

as a reader, one is obligated to empathize with the Arthur’s casualty. There is a palpable Eton influence on

Swinburne’s poetry, and ‘Arthur’s Flogging’ is a prime illustration of this. It’s a power imbalance, insofar

as the headmaster is older, bigger, and stronger than his victim, though the irony may be in that the

Swinburne enjoys and romanticizes the victimisation that comes with physical subjection, thus enabling a

degree of carnality – ‘Just where the broad bare bottom, smooth and plump, Flaked with red drops like

rose leaf fallen on snow, Sloped toward the tender thighs, 8’. Although ‘Arthur’s Flogging’ exhibits

technical virtuosity through its language and narrative, its conceivably long and compulsive repetition of

sadomasochistic eroticism evokes exhaustion. It is thought that Swinburne’s Eton experiences are the

central component in his captivation with the Flagellation fetish, and could also be in accordance with von

Krafft’s theory surrounding flagellation, and its ability to instigate sexuality from a young age, thus later

manifesting as fetish.

Throughout the Victorian era, sexuality became accountable for how the Victorians understood

not only themselves but the public/social divisions separating them, forming the significance of Society.

There were the extremes of wealth and poverty that emerged, during this period; Disrealli spoke of ‘two

nations in which the owners of capital accumulated great wealth and the poor deteriorated and tried to

survive on low wages and lived in appalling conditions’ 9. This may illustrate the motive as to why many

6
Lord Alfred Douglas (2010). Lad's Love: An Anthology of Uranian Poetry and Prose, Volume . Munich:
Valancourt Books. 103
7
Algernon Charles Swinburne (1995). Arthur’s Flogging, The Whippingham Papers. London: Wordsworth
Editions Ltd. 50
8
Algernon Charles Swinburne (1995). Arthur’s Flogging, The Whippingham Papers. London: Wordsworth
Editions Ltd. 51
9
Bill Spring. (2005). Victorian Sexual Attitudes. Available: http://www.byteboss.com/view.aspx?
id=2749039&name=msp_week_11._victorian_sexual_attitudes2.web. Last accessed 29th April
of the fetishist would tend to be middle and upper class white men, given that they felt the effects of both

wealth and chastisement . One should also consider the imperial dimension of upper and middle class male

sexuality, and the sexual adventures which empire made available to men of this class. None of this means,

however, that sexual activities were free for men, in the sense of guilt free; On the contrary, many forms of

sex were regarded with disgust. Men would report, to their diaries, for instance, being quite repelled by

what they did. This class division was a notable fetish that became prevalent in the period, instigating the

collaborative performance of perversions and fetishist master/slave role-play.

One notable figure concerned with such fetish is Arthur Joseph Munby, barrister and published

poet, whom in the first page of his diaries, notes – ‘simple and unconscious: thinking only, if she thought
10
at all, that she was very dirty and not fit to be seen’ in acknowledgement of Hannah Cullwick, a

Shropshire scullery maid. Upon graduating from Trinity College Cambridge, as a Barrister, Munby moved

to London. It was here that he exercised the habit of strolling industrial areas of the city, questioning

working class women on the details of their work and lives, and relishing the markers of class. It was here,

(1854) he sparked up a relationship with Hannah Cullwick – a servant, ‘maid of all work’. In his diaries

Munby confesses details of his infatuation with working class women, of which Cullwick personifies – ‘A

robust hardworking peasant lass, with the marks of labour and servitude upon her everywhere (…) such a

combination I had dreamt of and sought for (…) ‘If I ever have a sweetheart’, she thought, ‘he shall be

someone much above me; and I will be his slave’ 11. Cullwick followed a line of maids of whom Munby

had photographed, and collected the dirty hand prints of. One notable photo taken of Cullwick depicts her

as a chimney sweep, wearing a slave collar and wrist strap as a sign of Munby’s ownership. It’s also

important to note that the power play was as much sought by Cullwick as Munby – when Cullwick first

sees the Byron play, Sardanapalus, she immediately identifies with Myrrha, resolving that she too would

become slave to a master, - ‘and when I see that Myra [sic] as was the king’s slave, you know, I was took

with her! (…) if I was to love anyone, that’s what I should like: for him to be above me, and me to be his

slave’ 12– eerily similar to Munby’s diary entry. Through their relationship, Cullwick privately referred to

10
Derek Hudson (1972). The Life and Diaries of Arthur J. Munby 1828-1910. Cambridge: The Master and
Fellows of Trinity College. 107
11
Derek Hudson (1972). The Life and Diaries of Arthur J. Munby 1828-1910. Cambridge: The Master and
Fellows of Trinity College. 115
12
Hannah Cullwick and Elizabeth Stanley (1984). The Diaries of Hannah Cullwick: Victorian Maidservant.
Knightsbridge: Virago Press Ltd. 45
Munby as "Massa", an unsettling term of endearment that referred to her native Shropshire vernacular and

omitted it with that of the ‘negro slave whose blackness she replicated with soot’, as much for her own

satisfaction as for Munby’s. ‘Massa’ epitomizes all the social, sexual and racial inflections that make their

connection so forbidden and binding. By the turn of 1858, Hannah was working in London; and Munby

was educating her, and exhorting her to bear her life of service with humility. Although evidence suggests

that they never had sex, their relationship was highly sexual and ‘provided an arena for Munby to

understand his fetishistic desires concerning working-class women’ 13.

The divide in years between lovers is prevailing, if oftentimes subliminal, in Victorian literature.

Late 19th century writers make little distinction between homosexuality and pederasty, oftentimes making

the assumption the two were synonymous. ‘The historical exactitude of ‘queer theory’ has formed an

overview of sexuality in relation to ‘pederasty’ as opposed to ‘homosexuality’ 14, but its uncertainty has led

to a refusal to amalgamate the moments in fiction when sexual activity between males may depart from

literal meaning, which reiterates consigned male-male sex to the wayside. Using Oscar Wilde’s works as

a point of reference, one can observe elements of veiled themes of homosexuality, and pederasty,

respectively. Pederasty emerges In ‘Portrait of Mr W.H. (1889), a story about an attempt to uncover the

identity of Mr WH, the enigmatic dedicatee of Shakespeare’s Sonnets; it communicates that the affection

given by an older man to a younger is not necessarily reciprocated - Characters Erskine and Shakespeare

are infatuated by youthful men; whilst the young run riot, behaving heartlessly, the elder men observe

subserviently, this uncaring, reckless and wilful behaviour. The point of mutuality in pederastic relations

seems worrying for Wilde, as he remains dubious about the place of sex in pederast relationships as it

involves, perverts, or eliminates what he saw as pederasty’s invigorative characteristics. Furthermore,

Wilde’s infamous and most recognised novel, Dorian Gray, features vague narration of Dorian's "sins";

there exists an element of homoeroticism in the rivalry between Lord Henry and Basil, both of whom vie

for Dorian's recognition; nonetheless protagonist Dorian embarks on a series of adventures as his two

besotted elder companions fall away to the story’s wayside. ‘Wilde's editor JM Stoddart had already

erased a multitude of "objectionable" material from the novel before it made its debut in Lippincott's
13
Diane Atkinson (1988). Love & Dirt. Kent: Pan Macmillan Ltd. 138
14
Chris Bartle. (2004). Pederasty and Sexual Activity. Oscar Wilde's The Happy Prince and other tales. 1 (1), 1
Monthly Magazine in 1890’15, which however still led to the Daily Chronicle branding it ‘a tale spawned

from the leprous literature of the French Decadents – a poisonous book, the atmosphere of which is heavy

with the mephitic odours of moral and spiritual putrefaction’ 16. One amended excerpt originally read, ‘It is

quite true I have worshipped you with far more romance of feeling than a man should ever give to a friend.

Somehow I have never loved a woman (…)I adored you madly, extravagantly, absurdly. I was jealous of

everyone to whom you spoke. I wanted to have you all to myself. I was only happy when I was with you’ 17.

Here lies a trace of borderline pederastic intent, which is later supposedly exercised by Dorian himself,

thus suggesting a possibility that Wilde was using the novel as a vehicle to display his own lustings.

Thereafter, Gray also reflects on Hallward's feelings for him. "There was something infinitely tragic in a

romance that was at once so passionate and sterile". 18This was deemed untoward content, as it alludes to

homosexuality, and suggests another subtext of pederasty, which becomes a central topic throughout the

trials of Oscar Wilde. The later debasement of Dorian appears to transform what was once an innocent

charisma into a damaging influence. Basil even questions why Dorian's ‘friendship is so fatal to young

men’19, referring to the ‘shame and sorrow’20 that the father of one of the disgraced boys exhibits.

Elsewhere, even Wilde’s divulged epistle, De Profundis (1897) can be read as Wilde’s ‘lamentation of his

devotion to a younger man who had been inattentive to the elder’s wishes, needs, and counsel’ . Dorian

Gray is fitting with this theory as it illustrates a man’s “fetishist” obsession with youth and beauty.

In the Wilde Case Transcripts, Wilde openly advocates intimacy between an older and young man in a

speech in the courtroom – ‘It is intellectual, and it repeatedly exists between an elder and a younger man,

when the elder man has intellect, and the younger man has all the joy, hope and glamour of life before

him21’. This progressive, though ancient (Greek), ideology was unremittingly pressed upon in the

courtroom, by defence solicitor Edward Carson - particularly the themes and philosophy implied by

Dorian Gray – ‘It is said that in the month of July, 1890, Mr. Wilde published (…), a certain immoral and

15
Alison Flood. (2011). Uncensored Picture of Dorian Gray published. The Guardian. 1 (1), 1
16
Jad Adams (2007). Hideous Absinthe: A History of the Devil in a Bottle. London: Tauris Parke Paperbacks. 149
17
Oscar Wilde (2013). The Picture of Dorian Gray (The Original 1890 Uncensored Edition + The Expanded and
Revised 1891 Edition). Harvard: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. 135
18
Oscar Wilde (2013). The Picture of Dorian Gray (The Original 1890 Uncensored Edition + The Expanded and
Revised 1891 Edition). Harvard: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. 142
19
Oscar Wilde (2013). The Picture of Dorian Gray (The Original 1890 Uncensored Edition + The Expanded and
Revised 1891 Edition). Harvard: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. 149
20
“ “““ “ “ “ “
21
Author n/a. (2009). The Criminal Trials of Oscar Wilde: Transcript Excerpts. Available:
http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/wilde/Wildecriminaltranscript.html. Last accessed 2nd May
indecent work with the title of “The Picture of Dorian Gray”, which was intended to be understood by the

readers to describe the relations, intimacies, and passions of certain persons guilty of unnatural

practices’22. This supposed predilection of the love between a young man and his elder may be explained

by an older man desiring attributes he no longer possesses, consequently qualifying as a Fetish.

Additionally, what Carson may have been referring to was the perception that Dorian in his journey of

self-destruction adopts a tendency to be intimate with particularly young boys. Carson adopts this mode of

attack later when quoting a poem by Wilde’s lover, Lord Alfred Douglas, beginning, ‘Sweet youth(…)’

and concludes with ‘love that dare not speak its name’23. Wilde’s defines the ‘love’ as ‘The Love that dare

not speak its name" in this century is such a great affection of an elder for a younger man as there was

between David and Jonathan, such as Plato made the very basis of his philosophy, and such as you find in

the sonnets of Michelangelo and Shakespeare.’ 24Wilde goes on to justify the love between an older and

younger man by describing it as ‘the noblest of affections’, and an ‘intellectual love’ implies a veiled

admission of finite pederasty. The case of Oscar Wilde, alongside his publications really highlights the

pivotality of Fetishism, whether it exist within the realms of literature or physical society. Here, it would

appear that what certifies as a fetish, can be the most intelligent and creative of fascinations, thus

challenging the entire stigmatising connotations regarding fetishism all together.

Sin and wrongness associated with fetishism plays a fundamental role in the pornographic

literature of the 19th century. The scandal surrounding immorality induces an excitement and an

invigoration. Sex alone in the 19 th century was a discrepancy, and to embellish it with even more

insubordination would generate ultimate adventure and escapism. Stanislas De Rhodes’ ‘The

Autobiography of a Flea’ is a conspicuous acknowledgement of Victorian sensibilities – The

Autobiography of a Flea is a pornographic novel published by Edward Avery (a publisher of pornography

((Notable publications include the aforementioned Whippingham Papers, including poems by Algernon

Charles Swinburne, and a pirated edition of Sir Richard Burton's Kama Sutra)). The Autobiography of a

22
Carson. (2009). The Criminal Trials of Oscar Wilde: Transcript Excerpts. Available:
http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/wilde/Wildecriminaltranscript.html. Last accessed 2nd May
23
Douglas Murray (2000). Bosie: Biography of Lord Alfred Douglas. London: Hodder & Stoughton Ltd. 12
24
Wilde. (2009). The Criminal Trials of Oscar Wilde: Transcript Excerpts. Available:
http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/wilde/Wildecriminaltranscript.html. Last accessed 2nd May
Flea depicts the story of Bella, a woman blackmailed by a priest into a life of sexual perversion and

subservience. ‘Belle, young, childlike and so lately innocent, had suddenly become a woman of violent

passions. Now she lusted for hump without limit, or bounds of decency.’ 25Sin and wrongness are deep-

seated themes in this novel, and can be seen as a result of the mandatory restraint posited by the church.

Though Catholicism was supposed as complementary to classical Greece, it was challenged regarding its

separatism of sexuality and religion in critical practice. O'Malley's claim that ‘there is a persistent

conjunction of tropes of Catholicism with those of non-normative sexual expression or identity in the

literary, artistic, and polemical culture of nineteenth-century Britain and Ireland and, further, that that
26
conjunction reflects an ongoing contest over Britain's sectarian purity as well as its sexual values’ .

Rhodes’ novel illustrates the ultimate sin an ultimate setting - The act of rape, incest and polyamorous

sexual relations within a religious sphere, pandering to a myriad of Fetish. Religion, in this case, fails to

serve as a means of sublimating, masking, justifying, or celebrating desire in ways not always understood

by the individuals involved; Instead, it features as an immoral hypocritical institution. This is

acknowledged by the narrator, a flea; a philosophical love bug who frequents dark and intimate places. The

novel operates as a work of sexually explicit erotica and morality tale - the flea manipulates events to

ensure justice and the priesthood undergoes a damning review, as they define Bella, ‘a young girl, selected

from others for the qualities of her mind, is dedicated to the relief of the servants of religion’ 27. It may be

argued that the fetishism in the novel interprets anxiety surrounding an obsession with the need to control

and need to regulate and discipline, which is forcibly exercised in the conclusion of the book when Bella

and virginal friend Julia succumb to an orgy with 19 priests.

The upper and upper middle class men of the Victorian Era had a wealth of sexual opportunities

availed to them. These men had wives who had virtually no legal rights, and certainly no right to withhold

their conjugal duties from their husbands. The wife had no right to say no, her body then was her

husband’s to dispose of. The enforced Passivity, that is not of alien occurrence in Victorian fetishism,

manifests within ‘Porphyria’s Lover’. Porphyria’s Lover, which was published in 1836, is of the earliest
25
Stanislas de Rhodes (2009). The Autobigography Of A Flea. Toronto: Harper Perennial. 14.
26
Patrick R. O'Malley (2006). Catholicism, Sexual Deviance, and Victorian Gothic Culture. Washington DC:
Georgetown University. 1
27
Stanislas de Rhodes (2009). The Autobigography Of A Flea. Toronto: Harper Perennial. 10
and most controversial of Robert Browning’s dramatic monologues. The poem chronicles a man alone in

his cottage, whom welcomes in a beautiful young woman from an ongoing storm. She initially functions as

the apathetic of the two characters, whilst he admires her movements as she ‘rises from the dripping cloak

and shawl’28, shedding garments that connect her to the outside world. The passivity exhibited by

Porphyria can be deemed an arousing and compulsive facet of character, driving the admiring narrator to

become urgently affected - The wrongness, and “misplacement” of power in the scene also serves as a

fetish. Hereafter though, the power balance shifts, which is evident even before the narrator throttles

Porphyria with her own hair – (the passivity is only ever displayed by Porphyria herself). The main

fetishism witnessed here (alongside passivity), is that of Hair. The femininity of her ‘displaced, yellow’

hair is what the narrator thrives upon, conclusively using ‘

all her hair/in one yellow string (…) wound three times her little throat around’ 29to kill Porphyria. It may

seem there exists a ‘desire to possess, collect, touch, watch and show hair collapsed, as it carries some of

the traditional distinctions between compulsive and consumption, sexual perversion and idolization of

inanimate objects’30., thus implicating hair as venue between the animate and inanimate. Here also exists

the concept that loose hair denotes virginity and innocence. Even in Psychopathia Sexualis, von Krafft

reports on hair fetishism as ‘ the first and foremost fetish among all those centred on bodily parts’ 31. After

Porphyria’s death in the poem her total subjection by the narrator is accentuated by her seemingly ‘smiling

rosy lips’32; this doll-like attribution suggests an infantilisation and possible eternalising of virginity. The

narrator recognises his killing of Porphyria as a sin, in that he realises God has not punished him for the

murder. It displays parallels to other works by Browning as it again depicts a male character who

objectifies, uses, and abuses women by projecting their wishes upon them, The Duke Of Ferrara And

Count Guido Franceschini being the most evident examples. The climactic ‘mine,mine’ is made possible

by the romantic absolutism that assures the lover of his power to possess, to control, to save, and to

avenge. He too, the line insists, is ‘happy and proud’ 33the triumph with which his narrative has charted the

woman’s self-abasement now permits the emotional spontaneity of ‘surprise’, accompanied by the sexual

28
Robert Browning (2006). Porphyria's Lover, The New Penguin Book of Love Poetry. Cambridge: Penguin. 26
29
Robert Browning (2006). Porphyria's Lover, The New Penguin Book of Love Poetry. Cambridge: Penguin. 26
30
Galia Ofek (2009). Representations of Hair in Victorian Literature and Culture. London: Macmillan. 39
31
R. von Krafft-Ebing (2012). Psychopathia Sexualis. New York: Forgotten Books . 110
32
Robert Browning (2006). Porphyria's Lover, The New Penguin Book of Love Poetry. Cambridge: Penguin. 26
33
Robert Browning (2006). Porphyria's Lover, The New Penguin Book of Love Poetry. Cambridge: Penguin.
suggestiveness of ‘swelling’ and ‘growing’. The woman who is the subject of this changed dynamic is now

‘reduced to the object of her lover’s will, an “it” and her “utmost will” he has divined and honoured’ 34.

Beyond its status as a collective social object, hair evokes an immensely personal response from the

narrator. This literature illustrates the propensity a fetish can bear, and how such a compulsive

preoccupation can incite the most ostensibly impotent.

Taking into consideration the fetishist texts examined in this essay, it’s incontestable that the role

of fetishism in Victorian Literature is of crucial value. The period’s ever-growing restraint of the discourse

surrounding sex created backlash; the precatory texts evidences multiple developments of the dislocation,

amplification, modification and reorientation of desire. The fetishist boundaries grew due to the

polarisation borne out of the period’s literature, and events such as the case of Oscar Wilde. Though a

consequence of the era that it was borne of, fetishism has undoubtedly had repercussions upon literature

which followed, and the intimate minutiae has divulged sexual practices that still exist in literature today.

The literature of the 19th century demonstrates how such preferences came about in in sexually-stifling

times. Furthermore, the texts enable readers to understand the relationship between society, culture, and

fetish. The Victorians had few patterns to follow, and embraced standing in the margins in their

comprehension of sexuality ‘Thus the image of the imperial prude is emblazoned on our restrained mute

and hypocritical sexuality’. 35

Bibliography

 George Augustus Henry Sala (2011). Pleasure Bound: Victorian Sex Rebels and the New Eroticism.
London: W. W. Norton & Company. 121

34
Jennifer Gribble. (2006). Subject and Power in Porphyria's Lover. Browning's Porphyria's Lover. 1 (1), 1
35
Michael Foucault (1978). The History of Sexuality, Volume 1, An Introduction. USA: La Volonté de savoir. 4.
 R. von Krafft-Ebing (2012). Psychopathia Sexualis. New York: Forgotten Books . 90

 Algernon Charles Swinburne (1995). The Whippingham Papers. London: Wordsworth Editions Ltd.

 Lord Alfred Douglas (2010). Lad's Love: An Anthology of Uranian Poetry and Prose, Volume .
Munich: Valancourt Books.

 Bill Spring. (2005). Victorian Sexual Attitudes. Available: http://www.byteboss.com/view.aspx?


id=2749039&name=msp_week_11._victorian_sexual_attitudes2.web.
 Derek Hudson (1972). The Life and Diaries of Arthur J. Munby 1828-1910. Cambridge: The Master
and Fellows of Trinity College.

 Hannah Cullwick and Elizabeth Stanley (1984). The Diaries of Hannah Cullwick: Victorian
Maidservant. Knightsbridge: Virago Press Ltd.

 Diane Atkinson (1988). Love & Dirt. Kent: Pan Macmillan Ltd.

 Chris Bartle. (2004). Pederasty and Sexual Activity. Oscar Wilde's The Happy Prince and other tales.
1 (1)

 Alison Flood. (2011). Uncensored Picture of Dorian Gray published. The Guardian. 1 (1).

 Jad Adams (2007). Hideous Absinthe: A History of the Devil in a Bottle. London: Tauris Parke
Paperbacks.

 Oscar Wilde (2013). The Picture of Dorian Gray (The Original 1890 Uncensored Edition + The
Expanded and Revised 1891 Edition). Harvard: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.

 Author n/a. (2009). The Criminal Trials of Oscar Wilde: Transcript Excerpts. Available:
http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/wilde/Wildecriminaltranscript.html.

 Carson. (2009). The Criminal Trials of Oscar Wilde: Transcript Excerpts. Available:
http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/wilde/Wildecriminaltranscript.html.

 Douglas Murray (2000). Bosie: Biography of Lord Alfred Douglas. London: Hodder & Stoughton Ltd.
12

 Wilde. (2009). The Criminal Trials of Oscar Wilde: Transcript Excerpts. Available:
http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/wilde/Wildecriminaltranscript.html.

 Stanislas de Rhodes (2009). The Autobigography Of A Flea. Toronto: Harper Perennial.

 Patrick R. O'Malley (2006). Catholicism, Sexual Deviance, and Victorian Gothic Culture. Washington
DC: Georgetown University.

 Stanislas de Rhodes (2009). The Autobigography Of A Flea. Toronto: Harper Perennial. 10

 Robert Browning (2006). Porphyria's Lover, The New Penguin Book of Love Poetry. Cambridge:
Penguin. 26

 Galia Ofek (2009). Representations of Hair in Victorian Literature and Culture. London: Macmillan.

 Jennifer Gribble. (2006). Subject and Power in Porphyria's Lover. Browning's Porphyria's Lover. 1 (1),

 Michael Foucault (1978). The History of Sexuality, Volume 1, An Introduction. USA: La Volonté de
savoir.

 Daniel Orrells (2011). Classical Culture and Modern Masculinity. Oxford: OUP Oxford.
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 Peter Melville Logan (2010). Victorian Fetishism: Intellectuals and Primitives. Albany: State
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 Ian Gibson (1992). The English Vice: Beating, Sex and Shame in Victorian England and After .
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