The Black Pearl

The Black Pearl: Memoirs of a Victorian Sex-Magician

Book review by Quine

Originally written (one supposes) in the 1890's, by an unknown author who lists himself only as "anonymous". My copy, a paperback published by Hodder and Stoughton, London is without question the greatest pornographic novel I have ever read! This is "in my own experience" of course, and with respect to my particular tastes which lean to a wide variety of generally consensual heterosexual sex. I have read a lot of erotic and pornographic books though there are yet far more to be found, and this is, undoubtedly one of the gems. I have a bias toward erotic literature written in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as compared to what comes later (though there are some gems among these as well) because the sexual language is fully modern and unafraid, while the people are more natural, more like real people having real sex, and there are actual stories going on in between the sex scenes.

The protagonist, a moderately wealthy young-to-middle-aged man, sitting with friends in the London cafés of that era describes his early sexual education bringing his companions up to the present time at which point the story moves forward. The men with him have a few of their own experiences to relate, not to mention the chiding of their friend, Oscar Wilde, for things he had done that do, historically, land him into the trouble with authorities that this circle of friends confidently predicts.

In the course of his early adventures, our protagonist meets two women in particular with whom he becomes life-long friends. One, his original teacher (of many things), and the other a distant cousin. All three are unabashed erotophiles, and each follows their own story course whose events are related to the protagonist as letters that appear everywhere throughout the main story. Eventually these three do cross paths again, though when they do, they are each in their way about to experience their ultimate sexual adventure together, but not with one another. Each of these persons embarks on a search for the ultimate sexual adventure through different means. In one tongue-in-cheek letter on Satanism, the friend declares "You know, this Satanism is ... fucking with frills," while the other meets a man who appears to be the "real" count Dracula! There is a lot of great sex explicitly described in this book, also a lot of humor, and a very enlightening look at Victorian morality and the capacity of well-to-do and cultured people to amuse themselves without hurting anybody.

The book's ending leaves the door open to sequels, and indeed there is a "volume one" on the cover. I chanced an actual email to the publishers (and actually reached them), especially as I had found on the web (Amazon or some other book site) a listing of some eight other books that were supposedly sequels. The publishers told me none of these other books were in print, nor did they have any plans to reprint them. For all I know, the whole thing was a part of this book's marketing campaign. New or not the book is rare, even this 10 year old paperback! I have searched various sites where much erotica can be found and it isn't easy to find. Bookseller alibris.com has a "Black Pearl Anthology Vol II" carrying the same subtitle as this book, also published in England. A cleaver marketing campaign indeed!

There are a few introductions to this book. A forward from the publisher who speculates that this author was a member of the House of Lords, and well knew the literary characters of the time whose names pepper the book. Personal things appear to be known about them. For all I know, this is a modern novel with a cleaver marketing campaign that makes it seem 100 years older than it is, but it is very well written, and the erotic literary magazine "The Black Pearl" was indeed published in London from 1874 to 1880. The author's own introduction grabs the reader's attention immediately (at least this reader): "As I take up my pen to write of my life, I remain convinced that fighting and fucking are when two people come closest. You can grow close to a man by fighting against him or by fighting with him ... However I am of the opinion that it is not possible to grow close to a woman unless one fucks her." Believe me, this book begins there in its first two sentences, and never lets go.

Quine Atal, June 11, 2005