Vault of Cock

[troo]

steve said:

Do you think we should perhaps consider changing the name of the board to 'Vault of Cecil'?

My vote goes for "Vault of Cock", but I suspect we'd attract altogether the wrong kind of reader

[pulphack]

steve - sensation fiction was a kind of sub-genre that applied to wilkie collins and to others whose fiction (pre-crime fiction as we know it) concentrated on horrors of a more corporeal nature. or murder mystery and mayhem, as we are now more familiar with it.

apparently the term was first applied to the wonderful mrs braddon's 'lady audley's secret', wherein the aforesaid lady thinks first hubby dead, marries a rich old cove, then has to bump off hubby no.1 when he turns up, and also see off the maid who is a witness to this. there's a great silent version of this that i saw a couple of years back at the nft in a brit silents season (the bit where she tips hubby down the well had me and my mate in stitches).

mrs braddon was a magazine editor who wrote lady audley to boost circulation apparently. and created a whole new genre. at least, according to the lit academic who wrote the intro to the wordsworth edition (from where i cribbed this).

[Dr Terror]

Cock of Evil?

[dem]

pulphack said:

sensation fiction was a kind of sub-genre that applied to wilkie collins and to others whose fiction (pre-crime fiction as we know it) concentrated on horrors of a more corporeal nature. or murder mystery and mayhem, as we are now more familiar with it.

i know this was directed at steve, but i just read michel on the sensationalist school and thought i'd quote him again (same source: that really is an excellent introductory essay):

The nucleus of this loosely-categorised group of authors consisted of Dickens, Wilkie Collins, Rhoda Broughton, Ouida, Mary Braddon and Mrs. Henry Wood. Initially, these spirited writers received little sympathy from conservative critics who found their realism, not to mention their indecorous inducement to feelings of excitation, abhorrent. But the middle class public subscribed to their works in vast numbers.

In defining the Sensation novel, a contemporary critic observed how it was essential that "it should contain something abnormal and unnatural, something that induces in the simple idea of a sort of thrill."

[Steve]

We're agreed then, it was all Wilkie Collins' fault - or 'Willie Cockins' as I now like to think of him in the light of this thread...

troo said:

My vote goes for "Vault of Cock", but I suspect we'd attract altogether the wrong kind of reader

Good point, Troo. I'd hate to think of any undesirables coming along and lowering the tone... that's our job surely?

[sean]

Its so nice to see so many people with such an in-depth knowledge of Cecil.

[dem]

The subject would be a complete mystery to me were it not for:

'Pisanus Fraxi' (Henry Spencer Ashbee) - Index Of Forbidden Books (Sphere, 1969)

HENRY SPENCER ASHBEE, author of 'WALTER'S MY SECRET LIFE was also the greatest collector of erotica in Victorian England.

The INDEX OF FORBIDDEN BOOKS is a descriptive guide to his unique library. Each entry is divided into three sections: the publishing history of the book, a summary of its contents and a critical commentary on its literary value.

All the more important books are illustrated with extensive quotations from the actual texts.

Ashbee's INDEX OF FORBIDDEN BOOKS not only provides an invaluable guide for readers who do not have access to these rare books, but also sheds new light on the underground of Victorian literature.

In short, the flogtastic bible of salacious Cecil and a must for serious scholars with even more serious perversions. Ashbee is not one for flinching - the likes of The Haunted House, or the Revelations of Theresa Terence, Lascivious Gems and Lady Bumtickler's Revels hold no terrors for him - but even this seemingly shock-proof smut-fiend baulks at something called Experimental Lecture by 'Colonel Spanker' (Privately printed, 1836) - as well he might!

This book, which we can fairly assert is the most coldly cruel and unblushingly indecent of any we have ever read, stands entirely alone in the English language. It seems to be the wild dream, or rather nightmare, of some vicious, used up old rake, who, positively worn out, and his hide tanned and whipped to insensibility by diurnal flogging, has gone mad on the subject of beastly flagellation. The above analysis only gives the scaffolding of the work, as we have avoided copying any of the details, which are too minutely erotic for our pen. The boldest descriptions are given, and every stage of the poor girl's agony, every movement, blush and shriek, are dwelt and expiated upon. Her beauty forms the subject of the most violently crude remarks, and nothing seems left undone to prove that only a Nero or a De Sade can really enjoy the slightest sensual enjoyment.

we may console ourselves by thinking that the book is too deliberately horrible to be dangerous, for this mixture of gloating debauchery, inseparable from mental anguish, and bodily cold-blooded, slaughterhouse ill-usage, is merely a highly-coloured, overwrought phantasy of obscene ideas. It is well written, and the author has evidently taken great pains to bring out every point into proper relief, as if he intended to convince the reader of the absolute reality of the repulsive system he so amply expounds.

Now, I don't doubt that this is every bit as revolting as good old 'Pisanus' insists (the Web Terror Stories look a model of restraint in comparison), but can't for the life of me fathom how he selected Experimental Lecture as the very worst when so many of the extracts reveal an identical fondness for prolonged sexual torture of both male and female characters (it's fair in that respect). By and large, the men enjoy their ordeals as much as the women deplore theirs - unless the punishment is doled out by another woman in which case it's usually great fun!

If this sounds like it might be an entertaining read then, trust me, it's nothing of the sort. Any guilty pleasure aspect quickly wears thin, dulled by the endless repetition. Most of the extracts could have been written by the same hand no matter that there might be eighty years between publication dates, and beyond Ashbee's spirited commentary, there's little to recommend it. But it is valuable as a little window on a strain of underground 'erotica' I suspect we'd most of us know nothing about.

[troo]

A friend of mine has a fantastic book on Victorian pornographic photography. Fabullus stuff!

[Craig Herbertson]

I recall a good book of Victorian pornography, lots of illustrations. (I was only looking for research material of course)

I still think Dem that, regardless of the disappointments, in the 'Index of Forbidden Books' it would be worth having just to lay it open on the coffee table at the page that says 'Lady Bumtickler's Revels'.

[dem]

troo, think that the book you have in mind is '1001 Nudes' from taschen? Have fond memories of picking up a copy about five or six Christmas eve's back with the bride in - of all places - the Virgin Megastore on oxford street (!). Seems they were having a clear out and most of the books were half price or less. We got the 'nudes' one, a modern, facsimile reprint of Montague Summers 'The History of Witchcraft' (Carol, 1993) and, best of all, Andy Boot's 'Fragments of Fear: an illustrated History of British horror films' (Creation, 1996). Can well recall sitting up in bed the following morning reading the chapter on Tod Slaughter with two cans of fosters and a mince pie! Turned out that 'Fragments ....' had something of a cult following among the vault hardcore so you can imagine how we felt when Andy joined up and has gone on to become a much-treasured regular and a dear friend of mine (and other vault people) to, er, boot. Have said it before; we're a tiny forum but we're a dead lucky one.

craig, could be wrong but think there may even have been a relatively recent edition of 'Lady Bumtickler's Revels' published in the UK. the 'index' is disappointingly scanty on info, merely revealing that it is "A Comic Opera, as Performed at a Private Theatre with unbounded Applause." From the same source: 'Madam Birchini's Dance' (A Modern Tale, with Original Anecdotes collected in Fashionable Circles. By Lady Termagant Flaybum) and 'Sublime of Flagellation' (In letters from Lady Termagant Flaybum to Lady Harriet Tickletail).

[troo]

I can't remember the name. It was published by an American publisher, though.

[Craig Herbertson]

I must have lived a sheltered life. To have passed this book by. Can hardly believe it.

I found a description in an antique dealers: Is it just me or is there some kind of symbolic parallelism in the description of the books condition:

BUCKLE, HENRY THOMAS (COMPILER) Lady Bumtickler's Revels
Paris, Parisian Edition. 1926, First Thus. Paperback, 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. Reissue of a classic Victorian flagellation text. Spine missing from top and bottom, front cover loose. Good

[coral]

I can't believe I just read this thread. My eyeballs have been soiled!

[sean]

charlesblack said:

Cock of Evil?

Cock of Cecil??

[pulphack]

cock of cecil? that must be the bloke who exposed himself to me on a packed tube coming home from Liverpool St last night. The carriage was packed - why me?? I did what anyone would do, really... I bolted at Bethnal Green and dodged down two carriages, praying that he didn't get off at Woodford.

Anyway, all this talk of naughty Victorians reminds me that Steven Marcus' The Other Victorians is well worth a read on this subject. I know I've probably banged on about it before, but it's an incredible study of Victorian porn and attitudes to the naughty stuff. Read it next to Dracula and go 'hmm' more than you already do, and marvel at how the man who wrote 'My Secret Life' had the energy to pick up a pen (although it does explain why he had no time to hone his prose).