Mature
The Romance of Lust
A Confessional Memoir of Forbidden Desire, Victorian Sexuality, and Underground Print CultureBy Anonymous
Length19h 15m
About this audiobook
The Romance of Lust, or Early Experiences is a four-volume Victorian erotic novel first issued anonymously in the 1870s. Presented through the recollections of its young protagonist, Charlie Roberts, it traces a series of sexual initiations and encounters that steadily expand beyond the boundaries of respectable domestic life. Its prose combines the conventions of the Bildungsroman, the confessional memoir, and the pseudo-medical discourse of nineteenth-century sexology, producing a revealing tension between narrative instruction and sensational fantasy. The work's frank treatment of desire, secrecy, taboo, and sexual experimentation places it within the clandestine literature of Victorian publishing while also exposing the era's anxieties about education, morality, and bodily knowledge. The author remains unidentified, a fact that is itself significant to the book's cultural history. Published in an underground market associated with London bookseller William Dugdale, the novel emerged when obscenity laws, commercial curiosity, and expanding print circulation shaped the production of erotic literature. Its anonymous authorship may reflect both legal danger and the conventions of pornography, which often subordinated literary identity to readerly appetite. Although various attributions have been proposed, none is conclusive; the text is therefore best understood as a product of its publishing milieu rather than securely attached to a known biography. Readers interested in Victorian culture, the history of sexuality, and marginal forms of the novel will find The Romance of Lust an important, if challenging, document. It rewards critical attention to its narrative strategies and historical contradictions, especially the ways it transforms forbidden material into an apparently educational story. Approached with scholarly distance, it illuminates the intimate relationship between censorship, commerce, and literary invention.
Audiobook details
GenreRomance
Length19 hrs 15 mins
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
Publish dateNov 24, 2021
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1The Scarlet Plague (Dystopian Novel) (Annotated)
7VOLUME III. (pt. 1)
2The Romance of Lust
8VOLUME III. (pt. 2)
3VOLUME I. (pt. 1)
9VOLUME III. (pt. 3)
4VOLUME I. (pt. 2)
10VOLUME IV. (pt. 1)
5VOLUME II (pt. 1)
11VOLUME IV. (pt. 2)
Show all chaptersShow less
6VOLUME II (pt. 2)
True Politeness: A Hand-book of Etiquette for LadiesAnonymous1h 9m$0.99 · $0.00
Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris, 1405-1449Anonymous17h 7m$0.99 · $0.00
The Analects of ConfuciusAnonymous4h 10m$0.99 · $0.00
Yiddish Tales (Annotated)Anonymous16h 31m$2 · $0.00
The World English Bible (WEB): GalatiansAnonymous20m$2 · $0.00
Projet pour la compagnie des transports, postes et messageriesAnonymous36m$2 · $0.00
The World English Bible (WEB): JoelAnonymous12m$2 · $0.00
Golden DeedsAnonymous25m$2 · $0.00
The Only True Mother Goose MelodiesAnonymous54m$2 · $0.00
The Pearl Box - One Hundred Beautiful Stories for Young People, by a PastorAnonymous2h 18m$2 · $0.00
The World English Bible (WEB): NehemiahAnonymous1h 6m$2 · $0.00
The World English Bible (WEB): 2 TimothyAnonymous11m$2 · $0.00
The Gathering of the NationsAnonymous22m$2 · $0.00
Punky Dunk and the Spotted PupAnonymous2m$2 · $0.00
The Romance of AntarAnonymous1h 49m$1 · $0.00
Required Poems for Reading and MemorizingAnonymous3h 22m$2 · $0.00
Sindbad the Sailor, & Other Stories from the Arabian NightsAnonymous7h 36m$2 · $0.00
The life, trial and conversations of Robert Emmet, Esq., leader of the Irish insurrection of 1803Anonymous2h 40m$2 · $0.00
Remarks on the Proposed Railway Between Birmingham and LondonAnonymous57m$2 · $0.00
The InheritanceBlair Howard6h 40m$23
The Dance with Me TrilogyShelley Shepard Gray21h 44m$35
The Search (Annotated)Grace Livingston Hill7h 29m$0.99 · $0.00
The Captivating WarriorCami Checketts, Daniel Banner4h 8m$15
TimberTate James15h 36m$23
The ReunionJana Deleon6h 31m$26 · $0.00
Long LostLexi Blake13h 12m$23
The Vineyard BrideKatie Winters5h 5m$15
Something Like LoveBeverly Jenkins10h 21m5.0 (1)$29 · $0.00
Wishes from the HeartSophie Mays4h 9m$15 · $0.00
Blizzard ShowdownShirlee McCoy5h 16m5.0 (1)$12 · $0.00
The Heart of CourageLynne Basham Tagawa10h 57m$20
Love Inspired Suspense October 2025 - Box Set 2 of 2Laura Scott, Carrie Stuart Parks, Jennifer Pierce17h 34m$35 · $0.00
Talia Hibbert's Brown Sisters Book SetTalia Hibbert31h 7m$53 · $0.00
To Hold and ProtectSandra Owens7h 59m$8 · $0.00
The Newly Witch GameRobyn Peterman4h 39m$15
Arctic WitnessHeather Woodhaven5h 46m5.0 (1)$12 · $0.00
MaelstromBethany Adams17h 6m$25
Following the TrailLynette Eason6h 35m$12 · $0.00
Her Duty Bound DefenderSharee Stover6h 30m$12 · $0.00
You may also like
The Romance of LustAnonymous16h 53m$2 · $0.00
The Well of LonelinessRadclyffe Hall18h 11m$1 · $0.00
The NaturewomanUpton Sinclair2h 9m$2 · $0.00
Ann Veronica: A Modern Love StoryH. G. Wells10h 59m$2.30 · $0.00
Spinster of This ParishW. B. Maxwell9h 22m$1 · $0.00
Washington SquareHenry James7h 15m$12 · $0.00
The Romance of LustAnonymous16h 53m$1 · $0.00
The Green MirrorHugh Walpole12h 33m$1 · $0.00
Sir Robert's Fortune the Story of a Scotch MoorMrs Oliphant17h 29m$2.30
Adeline Mowbray; or, The Mother and DaughterAmelia Opie10h 14m$1 · $0.00
Jennie Gerhardt (Annotated)Theodore Dreiser16h 15m$2 · $0.00
BlindfoldOrrick Johns6h 23m$2.30
Fantomina, or, Love in a MazeEliza Haywood1h 14m$2 · $0.00
In Trust, The Story of a Lady and her LoverMrs. Oliphant16h 8m$2.30
Mansfield ParkJane Austen18h 23m$1 · $0.00
The Age of InnocenceEdith Wharton9h 47m$1 · $0.00
Ninth AvenueMaxwell Bodenheim7h 30m$1 · $0.00
Ann VeronicaH. G.11h 20m$3.50 · $0.00
A Country Gentleman and his FamilyMrs Oliphant17h 24m$2.30
Defending AliceRichard Stratton19h 16m$40 · $0.00