In a clandestine novel resisting Victorian erotic tropes that glorify men’s violation of women's bodies, Kitty Pry's adventures center and validate women’s pleasure

[Erotic Literature] [Illustrated Works][Sex Work] [LGBTQ+]

The Mysteries of Venus; or Lessons of Love exemplified in the Amatory Life and Adventures of Kitty Pry...

London: Duncombe, [1830]. First Edition. Original cloth trade binding with gilt to spine. Measuring 140 x 85mm and complete in 144 pages with all three colored plates present. A Near Fine example of an erotic novel heavily shaped by clandestine publishing practices, it is fully unsophisticated, square, and with the lightest wear to cloth; small label at the foot of spine bearing no information. Occasional light foxing or faint offsetting from plates; but in all a remarkably fresh copy. Despite the title page's claim that the text is "Re-printed from the Original Edition of 1783 without any abridgement," there was, in fact, no earlier edition; and the publisher Metford, which is mentioned on the title of a later edition in 1841, is nonexistent and uses Duncombe's address on 19 Little Queen Street as well as including Duncombe adverts. Published under a pseudonym in 1841 with the plates revised and expanded to eight, the present issue is the only example to carry the true publisher rather than the later clandestine pseudonyms and to contain the original three plates. While OCLC reports a single copy each of the 1841 London and 1841 first American editions, no copy of this true first is recorded. No copy of any version appears in the modern auction record. The present is the only example in trade.

A Victorian fantasy about women's private, erotic lives, The Mysteries of Venus asserts that regardless of marital status or finances all women have and find ways to partake in their sexual desires. Narrated by the lady's maid Kitty Pry, the novel moves house to house through London as Kitty works for a range of mistresses and becomes an active voyeur in their affairs. A religious fanatic, an heiress, a noble lady, a spinster, a merchant's young wife, and even a demi-rep have her in their hire. For each, Kitty provides a female gaze interested in their bodies, in their pleasures, and in what their partners provide to them. Unless another woman is involved in the encounter, Kitty treats the women's lovers as vague and interchangeable; men are simply the deliverers of women's fantasies, whether they be rough or tender. It is only in the final chapter that Kitty reveals she has learned from and envied her mistresses until she too joined their ranks of erotic pleasure. Following her time serving the demi-rep, she returns to the home of her first employer; and after an encounter with the woman's husband Lord B-- she becomes his kept courtesan until his interest wanes.

In a time when erotic books were often "a medium for expressing norms about male power and domination" and for responding to everyday sexual repression of the Victorian period, The Mysteries of Venus resists those tropes (Diamond). Rather than centering violence or the violation of women's bodies, and rather than glorifying masculinity, Kitty Pry's adventures remind the reader that women's sensuality exists and is valid, even when society demands it be publicly covered. Indeed, where Kitty is concerned, covert pursuit of satisfaction is all the more enjoyable.

Ashbee 3.171. Dugdale 91. (both for the 1841 edition)  (223)