The Romance of Lust: Complete Edition, Volumes I–IV
Deluxe Illustrated eBook Edition Over 780 Pages!
With a Foreword and Introductions by Dante Remy
Enter the secret world of Victorian desire in The Romance of Lust, or Early Experiences—the most notorious erotic novel of the 19th century—now presented in a complete, unabridged four-volume edition in eBook format. First published anonymously between 1873 and 1876, this boundary-shattering serial circulated in discreet printings, whispered about in drawing rooms, pursued by censors, and coveted by collectors for generations. Bold, unflinching, and psychologically revealing, it remains a cornerstone of Victorian erotica and a blueprint for modern erotic fiction.
Deluxe Illustrated Edition: Over 120 Victorian Photographs
This Deluxe Illustrated eBook includes over 120 illustrated Victorian photographic plates, created exclusively for these volumes and presented as a newly unearthed private archive—hidden for more than a century and discovered in an English country estate attic. Meticulously restored and paired with the original text, these evocative images intensify the atmosphere of the era: lace and candlelight, shadow and skin, performance and secrecy. They do not function as literal scene-by-scene illustrations; instead, they deepen the mood and suggest the world that inspired the novel’s transgressive imagination—an immersive companion to a book long read like contraband.
A History of Scandal and Sensation
There are few works in the annals of erotic literature with an allure as complex, scandalous, and enduring as The Romance of Lust. Published by unknown printers—likely operating out of London—and distributed covertly to evade censorship, the novel circulated among the upper echelons of society: indulged in privately while publicly condemned. That duality—repression on the surface, indulgence beneath—makes the series a cultural artifact as much as a provocation, offering a voyeuristic glimpse into the shadowy corners of Victorian life.
Organization and Serialization
Designed to tantalize as a serialized work, each volume builds upon the last with a deliberate escalation of eroticism and intrigue. The novel begins with the awakening of youthful desire, evolves into libertine indulgence, and culminates in a kaleidoscope of unbridled passions. The episodic structure blends standalone encounters with a larger psychological arc, using seduction, betrayal, taboo, and secrecy as both plot engine and portrait of a mind increasingly shaped by appetite.
A Journey into the Erotic Psyche (Volumes I–IV)
The Romance of Lust follows Charles, a privileged young man whose sexual awakening triggers a cascade of encounters ranging from intimate initiation to excess—and ultimately to a more unsettling self-recognition.
Volume I opens the descent: first initiations, blurred boundaries, and the earliest transgressions as innocence gives way to appetite.
Volume II expands the cast and settings, moving from private rooms to extravagant assemblies, deepening the portrait of desire as pursuit, sport, and compulsion.
Volume III becomes a theater of pleasure and power—ritual, costume, shifting loyalties, and sensual performance where control and surrender trade masks.
Volume IV accelerates into a whirlwind of abandon, yet carries a darker undertow: beneath the indulgence, the series begins to reveal the ache and estrangement that can follow pleasure without consequence.
With Foreword and Introductions by Dante Remy
This edition includes a new foreword and individual volume introductions by Dante Remy, editor and literary commentator, situating the work in its historical context and illuminating its themes of desire, transgression, and the psychology of power. Remy’s commentary highlights the novel’s strange sophistication beneath its scandal—how it reflects, subverts, and exposes the rigid moral codes of its time.
Why This Edition Matters
Unlike censored or fragmented versions that have circulated for decades, this complete, unabridged edition preserves the full scope of the original text—its audacity, its structure, and its escalating intensity across four volumes. For readers of Anaïs Nin, Sade, Bataille, and the best of contemporary erotica, The Romance of Lust belongs in the canon: notorious, influential, and still capable of startling intimacy.
A must-have for connoisseurs of erotic literature, lovers of forbidden classics, and anyone drawn to the sensual undercurrents of history, this Deluxe Illustrated eBook is more than a book—it is a portal into the private cravings of a bygone world.
From Black Fern—publishers of beautifully restored classic and contemporary erotic literature. An imprint of Erosetti Press.
Indulge in the legacy. Own the lust.