Sins of the Cities of the Plain

by Jack Saul

Written 12 years before Teleny by Saul and a likely ghostwriter, this account of Victorian cross-dressing and rent-boys is a legend all its own. The work draws on the author's own experiences with an all-male brothel in Cleveland Street (later shut down scandalously.) Originally subtitled: or, The Recollections of a Mary-Anne.

Genres: LGBT, Fiction, Classics, Erotica, Queer, Gay, Historical

120 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1881

About the author

John Saul, also known as Jack Saul, and Dublin Jack, was an Irish prostitute of the Victorian era. He featured in two major homosexual scandals, and as a character in two works of pornographic literature of the period.

Reviews

[Lottie from book club · Rating 3 out of 5]

DEAD DOVE DO NOT EAT

[Micha · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't know quite how to rate this book or if there was a point in my trying seeing as I did read it for school. And, more to the point, because it is Victorian pornography. Do I compare it to other books I read? Do I compare it to erotica, contemporary and past? Do I compare it to other Victorian pornographic novels? I just don't know, and I'm not sure that there is much to be had out of trying. It is, of course, ridiculous. It is also fascinating, and thinking about it in terms of its publication and original readership--thinking about who was reading it and when and where--is another aspect of the text entirely (that its original readers probably did not care so much about). I read this on the boat from Igoumenitsa to Ancona and fully appreciated the discretion of possessing an e-reader for the first time. It is meant to be titillating so of course it is in some respects, but it is also comical (intentionally and unintentionally) and unlikely. It wouldn't be my first recommendation for a book to get off with (though different strokes for different folks, as they say), but if you're curious about just how unrepressed the Victorians could be when they chose, take a gander.

[Bookshire Cat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Basically Lady Fuckingham but predominantly gay - although it has its fair share of c..ts. I cannot imagine what this caused to its readers if it ever got outside the intended circle (it was privately printed). Reading this in 1881 must have been more shocking than watching porn today and it’s a wonder the printer didn’t end up in flames.
Proper Victorians my arse (pun NOT intended).

[Jesse]

Antique pornography always makes for a fascinating reading experience: no longer, er, stimulating in the ways originally intended, the pleasure now comes from a kind of documentary interest. Representation of sexual behaviors & practices inevitably reflect their specific historical moment, documenting what was considered titillating, transgressive, or just simply expected during an erotic encounter. At the same time, they also convey the larger cultural & sociopolitical contexts that always affects private conduct behind closed doors.

The criminality of homosexuality under British law & the utter secrecy required for anything outside non-marital sex hangs over every sentence of The Sins of the Cities of the Plain, & here we enter into the furtive world of the "Mary Anns" (male prostitutes) of Victorian Britain. Related as a memoir of an (almost certainly fictional) Jack Saul, what is astonishing today is the polymorphous nature of non-normative sexuality on display: little distinction between homo & hetero sex acts, gender fluidity, utopian group sex, frequent excursions into BDSM practices, & a lot of sexual dynamics that give us pause today. But there are also countless recognizable impulses & desires too—as the saying goes, the more things change the more they stay the same!

There's a tendency to regard ourselves as particularly enlightened sexual beings today, but looking back at a text like this also indicates the ways we've also created our own little boxes, boundaries, & obsessions that someday will feel just as quaint & antiquated as they do here.

Also, I can't imagine bothering with anything other than the Valencourt edition, which contains a wonderfully detailed introduction, & displays the publisher's characteristic care regarding accuracy (this is the first unabridged edition ever published) & packaging.

"That lump in his trousers had quiet a fascinating effect upon me. Was it natural or made up by some artificial means? [...] All this ran through my mind, and determined me to make his acquaintance, in order to unravel the real and naked truth"

[Edwin John Moorhouse Marr · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really don't know how to review this book. On the one hand, it provides a fascinating insight into an undercover and buried part of late 19th century London. It offers a truly intriguing and surprising insight into the lives of male prostitutes during the era, and I found the (unknown) author's brazen blending of fact and fiction, very interesting.

On the other hand, this is a pornographic novel, and not even a particularly good one. The prose is poor at best, and the depictions of bestiality, incest, rape, peaodophillia (although probably this is an anachronistic term to retrospectively apply to Victorian England), people trafficking and general, sexual violence, is all extremely disturbing, and at times, sickening. There is not a single perversion that this book overlooks, and this makes for an extremely unsettling read, but at the same time, again offers an insight into the lives of a marginalised and ignored part of Victorian London. However, it must be a good thing to be made aware of the poor boys and girls of 13 years and younger, who were sold to Paris as part of the sex trade, and used for appalling sexual fetishes, before, as the narrator says, 'mysteriously disappearing.' I really feel my eyes have been opened to the true horrors that faced poor, orphaned children during this era.

Nevertheless, a very difficult book to rate. So much of it is just utterly disgusting, but that is counter-balanced by the fascinating insight into 19th century London that this book offers, and it at least offers a time piece to remember the victims of the 19th century industrialisation, booming urban centres, and prudishness which reduced sexuality to the ungovernable and unsafe margins of 1880s London.

[Karky · Rating 3 out of 5]

Plot? What plot? Prostitution, cross-dressing, orgies, voyeurism, BDSM, pederasty, incest and bestiality... Yeah, there's not much missing on the taboo front. I knew it was dirty, but damn. I guess that's what one should expect from Victorian smut.

[Vincent · Rating 3 out of 5]

Victorian smut, haha.

[Bianca · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this for a project on male/homosexual prostitution in late 19th-century London.
I must say that the first time I read it, I was delighted by the vulgarity and had great fun sniggering whilst reading on the train.

After two more times of reading and plucking it apart, however, it's not as exciting and new anymore. (It's like watching the same porn twice, I suppose.)

Still.. interesting little volume, especially the question of authorship etc.!
I think it does disclose a lot of things about homosexual identity - or at least what the mainstream public for smut like this expected to be homosexual identity. The period in which this was published, after all, was the time when the notion of sodomy began to shift from the box 'criminal behaviour' to 'disorder' - and to a fully fledged (and still even now developing) identity from there.

[Eva · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating to see that porn tales are a genre that hasn't changed all that much since the Victorian era. I wouldn't recommend this book for the porn itself, as it is written more for the purpose of recollection rather than for the reader's amusement, at least by today's standards (?). The biggest selling point of "Eveline"' s tales is certainly all the old slang, and the ability to peer into the scandalous sex lives the people of that time allegedly had.

I do think people writing fanfiction set in this era cling too much to this book, and as such I would suggest some variety, if possible.

[Ronald · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating 19th C. porn novel...

The more things change, ....

[Phoenix Mendoza · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well this was absolutely fascinating. A series of essays and collected recollections of a Mary Ann, or young male Prostitute in Victorian London. Very very valuable piece of gay history, which was what I read it for, but it was also extremely and surprisingly sexy? There were moments of it I found genuinely erotic (hello Cow Udder girl!!) despite the absurdity. There were also parts of it that are dated/racist and others that weren’t my cup of tea—coercion for example—(pedastry, however…), but the entire thing was well Written and titillating and informative even if I wasn’t INTO it into it. I’ve been writing a lot of Victorian erotica so I wanted to see the language gay men were using at the time and I was not dissapointed on that front in the least. Incredibly informative, and also a brilliant insight into what criminalized sex looked like in a deeply repressed society. Goes to show that sometimes control and censorship lead to even more dramatic backswings in reaction, and by repressing sexuality publicaly, truly boundary-obliterating sex cultures flourish privately. Not for the faint of heart, there’s every possible topic your average kid with pronouns on twitter would dox someone for in here. Pedophilia, bestiality, rape, caning, cross dressing, you name it. (Except scat and water sports! Curiously absent).

[Raimondo Lagioia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ah, but how eminently Victorian this all is! It reminds me of the sprawling My Secret Life memoirs, down to the delightful vocabulary. How can I ever forget the word "gamahuche"? Even their bawdy talk sounds a tad literary.

Both books explore the salacious goings-on lurking beneath the prudish veneer of a thoroughly puritanical society. The only difference is that while the hero of the Secret is a private gentleman, here it's a Mary-Ann (pejorative for a male hustler) who takes center stage.

It seems that contrary to expectations, Jack was not raised in penury at all, hailing from a solid bourgeois family that once even employed servants. Amidst his burgeoning, precocious sexuality, their estate suffered a precipitous decline. This was not explored in any detail though - the focus has always been on Jack's seamy adventures, as I guess it should.

Clandestine orgies, tribadism, transvestism, flagellation, and all manner of aberrant fetishes figure within these pages. The lubricious games our hero indulged in were quite creative too. Imagine a bacchanalian Slap-Bum Polka, or a buggeree suckling a cow's teats while getting pronged.

Things did take a darker turn in the later chapters. Harlots engaging in theft and extortion and exclusive brothels that ply murderous pleasures were revealed by those in the know. Accounts of the most sordid debaucheries deriving from, or indeed straight out of history close out the book, which ended rather abruptly.

6/10; 3 stars.

[Sophie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am fairly sure I had never heard of this book before this year, but then happened to come across it several times in other books, and ultimately got curious enough to buy it. And it was an interesting read, to be sure. It’s Victorian porn, and while it doesn’t really work as porn (at least not for me) it’s worth reading for the, ahem, content as much as for the vocabulary and atmosphere, for lack of a better word. I was constantly thinking of a girl back at uni who was shocked when I insisted a poem written at the beginning of the 20th century might be dealing with masturbation. I wonder what she would have said to that. Not that I knew that there were books like that when I was at uni.

Alright, I hope I can put this the right way. I think reading books like this one actually are a vivid reminder that mankind as such hasn’t changed much )when it comes to sex at least) as well as reminding us that people in the past were actual people. That sounds stupid, I know, but it’s kind of like being in Pompei and realizing that two thousand years ago there were people walking through those streets, most of them probably thinking about sex in one way or the other (just kidding). Basically what I mean is that people needed wank material way before the internet.

It’s not a book I would recommend to people, exactly, unless you’re looking for vocab to use in your historical novel (just let’s avoid Mr Pego, maybe). But I found it fascinating.

[Connor Stompanato · Rating 3 out of 5]

Once you get over the shock of how graphic this is, it actually isn't a good book. It is entertaining and surprising but there is no actual story, it's just porn. Things that happen in this book include: incest, bestiality, rape and sex trafficking of children.

The last point is one of the most disturbing (believe it or not) revelations that come from this novel as this is apparently non-fiction to an extent. It is revealed that homeless children are being taken from the streets of London to Paris where they are tortured sexually and eventually killed. Thrown in among the insanity of all the sex scenes which are mostly amusing even when shocking (the cow...), this really changes the tone of the novel in my opinion and exposes a horrifying reality about the lives of children living in poverty in London during the Victorian era.

I would say that this book is worth reading if you want to see the Victorians at their dirtiest, but it is no literary masterpiece.

[Kimberley Dane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh I do love a little Victorian gay porn. No romance here, it is basically a memoir relating debauchery after debauchery, so it differs from Teleny rather a lot, and some of the words used to describe parts of the anatomy or sex acts just make me giggle, but I did enjoy it.

Of course I'm perhaps a little obsessed with the Victorian era, and so I think of this book as a little like reference material or research.

[Roof Beam Reader (Adam) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty much every kind of sexual act (and "perversity) that one could imagine. The book was referenced in a historical text on homosexuality (Sodom on the Thames) and is incredibly interesting in its historical significance, speaking, perhaps, first-hand about actual events taking place in the early and mid-19th century. Real people, schools, brothels, and court cases are mentioned and/or implied, and the book closes with a brief account of (in)famous ancient Romans.

[Nicolas W · Rating 3 out of 5]

A vulgar yet entertaining look into the sexual proclivities and fantasies of a gay Victorian dandy, Jack Saul, presumably a ghost writers pen name. Hardly literature, its a quirky and perverted read though significant for its 1881 publication, making it a contribution to 19th century gay history and writings.

[Nicolas Chinardet · Rating 2 out of 5]

Having recently seen a play purportedly based on this, I was expecting much more of a narrative (there isn't any, except in the introductory chapters) and certainly nothing so very graphic.

This reads as a badly written, unedited draft collection of vignettes; interesting, I suppose, as a rare example of such writing from its time, but little else.

[Rick · Rating 4 out of 5]

I kind of stumbled upon this awhile back and eventually found a relatively cheap copy available. I was surprised that something like this was written back in the Victorian era. It is also surprisingly explicit and certainly demonstrates that sexual practices of all types have been around far longer (and are thus much more universal) than most puritanical people are willing to believe.

[Paola · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is your classical Victorian porn but, I found it quite enjoyable. "Eveline"'s sex experiences were amusing, dirty and disgusting. I was a little shocked at first, this novel was way too graphic and some situations just seemed me unreal and disgusting but the rest was just fine.

[Michael Wynne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant and sexy and funny. A real lesson in how to mix humour and raunch.

[Wesley McCraw · Rating 4 out of 5]

Published in 1881, it's all gay sex. Funny, eye opening, and surprisingly easy reading.

[Dmitry · Rating 3 out of 5]

«Грехи Содома и Гоморры» считается первым дошедшим до нас опубликованным порнографическим гей-романом висикторианской эпохи. Изданный в 1881 году тиражом в 250 экземпляров, он распространялся среди узкого круга обеспеченных читателей. Предположительно, Оскар Уайльд читал «Грехи» и написал под их влиянием приписываемый ему эротический роман «Телени». Сохранился всего один экземляр первого издания «Грехов», сегодня он хранится в Британской библиотеке. Автор романа доподлинно неизвестен и скрывается за псевдонимом Джек Сол.

«Грехи» открываются предуведомлением, в котором некий мистер Чембон знакомится с молодым человеком по имени Джек Сол, оказавшимся опытным лондонским проститутом по кличке “Мэри-Энн”, и после тщательного изучения одной выдающейся вдоль штанины детали приглашает его к себе домой и предлагает написать мемуары о своей жизни, знакомствах и работе. Дальнейшие главы романа построены как письма Сола мистеру Чембону и содержат изрядно подробностей о сексуальной жизни Сола и его клиентов: игры с переодеванием, оргии, вуайеризм, БДСМ, инцест и прочие радости викторианских джентльменов. Также Сол пересказывает истории своих «коллег» о самых уродливых сторонах их дела: антисемитизме, шантаже, насилии и сомнительных практиках. Роман завершается парой коротеньких комплиментарных эссе о содомии и трибадизме (правда, язык этих текстов ныне изрядно устарел).

Ценность этой викторианской похабщины, конечно, не художественная, а сугубо историческая. Это интересный документ эпохи, написанный, как всякая порнография, в первую очередь для развлечения читателей, ныне может стать забавным экскурсом в закрытые мужские гомосексуальные круги конца 19 века и в сексуальный сленг того времени (например, викторианский термин для фелляции gamahuche я встретил впервые). Джек Сол – реально существовавший проститут ирландского происхождения, замешанных в нескольких секс-скандалах (в том числе крупном 1889 года вокруг мужского борделя на Кливленд-стрит, который посещали богатые и знатные клиенты, а крышевал – сам наследник престола принц Альберт Виктор), и видимо, его приключения легли в основу «Грехов». Читается роман довольно легко, пусть сюжета как такового в нём нет и временами приходится заглядывать в словарь прояснить устаревший сленг. В целом этакий бюджетный Диккенс с твистом (pun intended).

[Bernie Gourley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a short work of Victorian erotica that describes the sexual adventures of a male prostitute of the variety then called a “Mary-Ann.” The “Mary-Ann” was an effeminate male who -- to a large extent, but not exclusively -- serviced male clients. The story is presented in an epistolary form. It opens with a chapter that’s written as if by a john of the pseudonymous author / main character. This opening sets up the rest of the work by explaining how this john, a Mr. Cambon, came to use Jack Saul’s services, and – furthermore – how he then became involved in the publication of this story.

After the details of Mr. Cambon’s interaction with Jack Saul is presented, the book proceeds as if a diary conveying the saucy bits of Saul’s sex life (both professional and personal.) While Saul explains that he prefers engaging older male clients, the book presents a mix of homosexual and heterosexual activities (both in his work and in his personal relationships.)

There is some ancillary matter in the book. After Saul concludes [what is presented as] his personal story, he offers some second-hand accounts of individuals in the same line of work. Here one learns about the worst elements of these sex workers in the form of “George,” an anti-Semitic mary-ann who engages in blackmail and other heavy-handed and sociopathic tactics that – as far as we know – Jack Saul doesn’t engage in. [Although, under the direction of a client, Saul does take part in some unsavory practices.]

There are also a couple of essays at the end, one on sodomy and another on tribadism. If you’re like I was, you have no idea what tribadism is. That brings up a point worth mentioning. If you decided to read this work, you may want to have a good dictionary near at hand. The slang and terminology of the sexual domain have not aged well, and you may find yourself needing to look up many words. (Though, admittedly, context often gives one a strong clue.)

If you’ve gotten this far, it should be clear that there is a great deal of explicit sexual content in this book. While readers of some modern-day erotica might not find it particularly racy, it’s graphic in its descriptions and does involve a wide range of practices.

This book shines a light on a domain of Victorian society that one will not learn about from Dickens or Austen. Like most pornography, it’s not particularly well-developed or artistically grand, but it’s intriguing in its own way.

[Liam Ostermann · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a famous piece of Victorian pornography, but in the absence of other evidence works like this have stories to tell us. It is impossible to make claims for it in literary terms, in many ways it is risible, but it has acquired a continuing interest becauzse it turns out that Jack Saul was not just pseudonym but a real person (see 'The Sins of Jack Saul' by Glenn Chandler) who was involved in two of the great 19th homosexual scandals one in Dublin and one in London. Large parts of The Sins of the City of the Plain are fictitious because the real Jack Saul did not, and could not have, taken part in them, most notably the 'Fanny and Stella' scandal.

If you are interested in the rise of Victorian 'moral panic' (one of the best and most readable accounts is still 'The Worm in the Bud' by Ronald Pearsall) then this a 'text' you might want to read, though I am equally sure you could get by with precise of the work. It was written as a 'stroke' book but I can't see anyone reading it for that purpose - there is a great deal better out there - maybe the whole Victorian thing will appeal.

I a m giving three stars because it is not bad, except in the way all pornography is 'bad' - boring but not morally wrong. It does have an interest because there is, somewhere in it, elements of truth. But I would think reading about the time, rather then it, would be more interesting.

I did read this book thirty years ago and have no intention of reading it again.

[Emilia]

I read some reviews on The Sins of the Cities that said that there is no “adequate” way to rate this book. I agree! I started reading this book in preparation for a course on Victorian literature. Of course, even I cannot reference 99% of the book in “proper” society.

I thought that this book was a humorous depiction of the many sexual adventures of a racy Victorian (gentle)man. However, there are some deeply disturbing details – besides bestiality, incest, and such, there are depictions of child trafficking and child prostitution, although I know that the age of consent in the Victorian era was not the same as it is today. Moreover, there are scenes of rape. In these scenes, an individual initially says “NO,” but no never means no. 100% of the time, it turns into a “YES.” All of a sudden, the individual starts enjoying the practice, no matter their initial thoughts on it. As if the only reason why they’ve said no in the first place was lack of experience. And if they do not start enjoying the practice fully, they are sold to the highest bidder in France.

While there is, surely, some truth to the sexual behavior of supposedly "repressed" Victorians, I could not overlook all of these highly problematic issues.

[Gwladys · Rating 4 out of 5]

WHAT AN ADVENTURE
I don't know what I was expecting when starting this book but I was honestly thinking "how freaky can a victorian erotic book really be?" well, it would appear the answer was : much freakier than i could ever have imagined.
What struck me most is how every sexual practice i could think of is depicted in this tale (and many i could never have thought of). I honestly can't be exhaustive but like, there are sexual encounters with men, women, a cow (???!!!?), some older, some younger (way too young), two of them, three of them, in much larger groups, involving hands, mouths, feet, strap ons (i swear to god) role-playing, dirty talk, cross dressing, bdsm(ing?), doing stuff with family relatives, employees, soldiers..... its honestly neverending
There is even a little history class of homosexual practices at the end (talking about men, women and intersex ppl)
It was the most sex I have ever read about and yet somehow one of the unsexiest story i ever read (I blame the language and the problematic stuff) but I learnt how to say "scissoring" in old English so it was all worth it

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay, so I read about this author, Jack Saul, in the book "Bad Gays". It sounded unusual, so I thought I would see if it was still in print. I was shocked to discover it was in our public library, but once I checked out the book, I was even more shocked from the writing, and from the fact that this was written in 1881. It is listed as "erotic fiction" but it's mostly really hardcore, with a couple of educational essays at the end. I suppose it's important that we know these things existed 140 years ago, but still... Maybe I'm a bit more prudish than I thought...

[Olomolo]

wiktoriańskie p*rno z jeszcze mniejszą ilością fabuły niż w telenym (a i u oscara na to narzekałam...) 🤡 ta książka jest w tak wielu aspektach niepoprawna i niemoralna, z*ofilia tu jest, p*dofilia, k*zirodztwo, jeśli komukolwiek z was przyjdzie do głowy to czytać, możecie zrobić sobie bingo

interesująca, przez wzgląd na aspekt historyczny wręcz fascynująca, ale nie jest to książka, którą poleciłabym jako coś innego niż "materiał badawczy"

[G · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Sins of the Cities on the Plain (a reference to Sodom and Gomorrah) is purported to be a "memoir" of a male prostitute, highlighting stories from his life including two scandalous events from London headlines. While there was a real-life Jack Saul, scholars dispute certain events presented as facts when it is more likely heresay and others likely to have been embellished for story-telling. As literature, each vignette is pretty much identical to the last except for minor changes in participants and setting. This was repetitive and tiresome. At the end of the day, this book is best viewed as a historical curiosity, the first example of gay erotica.