One of the most notorious works of pornography in English is My Secret Life by "Walter," an anonymous Victorian gentleman. The book was first published in 1888, and the, uh, action takes place between about 1840 and 1870. Walter commits literally thousands of sexual acts through the course of his sexual memoir, some of which are obviously fantasy but others of which ring true. In fact, you can learn a great deal about Victorian society by reading My Secret Life. There's your excuse! It's historical research!

Notes: a) Most of the women Walter has sex with are either professional prostitutes or women he offers money to b) Many of the rest of them are domestic servants c) Walter is a serial sexual harasser, and might well be accused of rape today d) He definitely uses his money and social position to exploit poorer women e) The lower classes seem to have few taboos about sex in Walter's world f) Walter doesn't classify people into hetero and homosexual; he is willing to engage in sex play with men occasionally, but not to participate in anal sex, which he thinks is dirty and shameful. I think today he would identify as hetero rather than bi g) Nobody in Walter's world knows even the most basic information about venereal diseases h) There are no new sexual practices. Walter partakes of just about everything possible. He's not into flagellation, but digs spanking i) Walter's courtship technique, when seducing a woman of more or less his social class, consists of making bawdy comments to her, grabbing her and kissing her by force, and then pulling out his wanger. He claims it works for him. I don't think so. One problem with pornography is that it portrays everyone as sex-obsessed and always ready for it. I really believe that idiot sexual harassers believe that the stuff portrayed in porno is all true, and think if they whip out their whackers women will be ready to service them j) There's a lot of great vocabulary in the book. I have added the verb "to gamahouche" to my personal lexicon. Now, instead of using "Yo' mama wears army boots" as an all-purpose insult, you can say, "Yo' mama gamahouches Rosie O'Donnell."