Why The Romance of Lust Needs to Be in Every Erotic Library | Victorian Erotica
- Dante Remy
- Apr 21
- 5 min read
Updated: Apr 24
Dante Remy |
There are books that titillate. There are books that scandalize. And then, once in a rare while, there are books that define an entire genre—books so daring, so evocative, and so psychologically rich that they defy easy categorization. The Romance of Lust, originally published anonymously in four volumes between 1873 and 1876, is one of those books.
With the release of the newly restored, complete four-volume edition from Black Fern—an imprint of Erosetti Press—we are not merely republishing a Victorian erotic novel. We are reviving a cultural artifact, a literary rebellion, a mirror to the secret desires of an era that prided itself on restraint. This is the first time The Romance of Lust has been assembled in its entirety, paired with historical commentary, restored antique photographic plates, and produced with the aesthetic it deserves. As the editor and commentator for this edition, I can say with conviction: this is not just a republication—it is a resurrection. And it belongs in every serious erotic library.
A History Victorian Erotica Buried in Desire and Dust
The Romance of Lust has always been a book wrapped in mystery. We still do not know who wrote it. Its earliest readers devoured it in private, often by candlelight, their copies passed from hand to trembling hand in drawing rooms and dens of disrepute. It was distributed underground, by clandestine publishers, often to the very aristocrats who condemned it in public. The duplicity of the Victorian era—its surface piety and subterranean pleasures—is captured perfectly in this novel’s existence.
But until now, the full story has never been told.
In preparing this edition, we uncovered something extraordinary: a trunk hidden in the attic of a crumbling English country estate. Inside, sealed for over a century, were dozens of collodion wet-plate photographs—raw, luminous, and shockingly erotic. They were accompanied by printing notes, handwritten letters, and fragments of what may have been the publisher’s original records.
Were these the muses of The Romance of Lust? Were they its secret co-conspirators?
Though the photographs do not directly illustrate the novel’s plot, they undeniably evoke its world as a fictional account that accompanies this anonymous classic. They capture the atmosphere of the book—the heavy drapes, the exposed flesh, the furtive glances. As a story told in the volume's forward, these images have now been painstakingly cleaned, restored, and included in each of the four volumes—thirty plates per book, totaling over 120 rare Victorian erotic photographs across the series. This is the only edition in existence to include them.
A Psychosexual Epic in Four Volumes
The structure of The Romance of Lust is itself bold. Told in the first person, it charts the sexual education and eventual mastery of Charlie, a young man whose erotic journey begins with curiosity and escalates into a symphony of taboo. Every volume peels back another layer of Victorian repression, exposing desires that still challenge us today.
Volume I: The Awakening of Desire
Here, the tone is discovery. The young Charlie is introduced to physical pleasure under the guidance of the sultry Mrs. Benson and his own sister Eliza—figures of maternal authority and familial intimacy, transgressing not only the bounds of propriety, but of psychology itself. This is Freud’s playground before Freud had a name.
"Her glorious white bottom—dazzlingly white and shining like satin—rose before my gaze..."
This is not pornography. This is literature that dares to understand lust as a force that molds identity, authority, and memory.
Volume II: Into the Labyrinth of Temptation
As Charlie’s experiences deepen, he is drawn into more complex webs of desire. Aunt Brownlow enters the stage, as does Harry Dale. We move from initiation to temptation. Themes of secrecy, power, and betrayal take center stage. The acts are bolder, yes—but more importantly, the emotional stakes rise. There is no longer the veil of innocence to hide behind.
Volume III: Scandal and Seduction Unleashed
Here is the storm. Charlie is no longer learning—he is orchestrating. Relationships become tangled, particularly with Miss Frankland and Mrs. Nichols, and each encounter teeters on the brink between ecstasy and ruin. The writing becomes more confident, more lyrical, and yet more devastating. This volume is Victorian erotica at its most fearless.
Volume IV: The Zenith of Passion and Revelation
Everything comes to a head. Secrets unravel, bodies and boundaries are both crossed and burned. This is not just the climax of a story—it is a meditation on desire as both liberation and destruction. Charlie’s final encounters are emotionally raw, carnally intense, and psychologically revealing. If the earlier volumes explored taboo, this one revels in its full implications.
Each volume is accompanied by restored photographic plates—scenes of domestic intimacy, salon sensuality, and unflinching eroticism. They do not illustrate the plot. They illustrate the world the novel dared to describe.
More Than a Novel: A Document of Human Desire
What makes The Romance of Lust extraordinary is not its catalog of sexual acts—though those are certainly here, described with a richness that still stirs even the jaded modern reader. What makes it vital is its psychological honesty. Its characters act out impulses most of us repress. They transgress, yes—but they do so with an awareness that they are crossing into forbidden territory.
There is real artistry in the writing. The sentences are florid in that unmistakably Victorian way, yet pulsate with life. There is poetry in every moan, subtext in every spanking. Even the most explicit scenes unfold with the rhythm of ritual.
"She bared her fine right arm, and grasping the rod, stepped back and raised her arm... The rod whistled through the air and fell with a cruel cut on my plump little bottom."
Power, submission, longing—these are not decorations. They are the meat of the story. And the photographs included in this edition, real and raw, deepen the experience. You are not just reading about a hidden world. You are seeing it.
The Freud Who Never Read It
Reading The Romance of Lust today, one cannot help but think of Freud—his theories of repression, of the Oedipal complex, of sublimated desire. This novel anticipates them all. But where Freud sought to explain, The Romance of Lust enacts. It is the id unleashed, the superego shattered, the libido rendered in lush, opulent prose.
In this edition, I’ve included a forward that examines these psychoanalytic dimensions. As a writer and a reader of transgressive literature, I believe this novel does not belong in the margins of academia or behind censored library shelves. It belongs on the main stage, alongside Sade, Bataille, Nin, and Genet.
The Collector’s Edition: A Sacred Object
For those who desire the ultimate experience, we’ve created the Collector’s Edition—a hardcover, oversized volume that includes all four books and all 120+ plates, presented in a cloth-bound case with a dust jacket designed to reflect both the opulence and the secrecy of the original text. It is more than a book. It is an object of devotion. Soon to be released.
For bibliophiles, collectors of erotica, historians of sexuality, and those who recognize the body as both subject and symbol, this edition is an heirloom.
Available Now — And Only Here
The Romance of Lust, restored and complete, is available exclusively through Erosetti Press and Amazon. No other edition includes the restored plates. No other edition includes this level of scholarly and aesthetic attention. No other edition tells the full story.
Because erotica is not something we should apologize for. It is something we should honor. We are creatures of longing. And in books like this, we do not simply read—we remember.
Dante Remy
Author, Editor, and Curator
Black Fern | Erosetti Press
“Eroticism is the poetry of the flesh—
A sonnet, spoken in whispers and gasps,
Where body and desire merge in their darkest,
Most sublime verse.”
©️ 2025 Dante Remy
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Learn more and look inside the volumes on the Erosetti Press website.
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