The Pearl: A Journal of Voluptuous Reading was originally a clandestine Victorian magazine, published monthly in London from 1879 to 1880. It collected erotic tales, poems, limericks, parodies, and letters – a mixture of high-society seduction, taboo eroticism, and playful ribaldry. This Grove Press edition brings together six issues of the magazine’s stories and miscellany, offering the provocative, boundary-pushing writing that scandalised Victorian readers, wrapped in a sensational sixties cover.

With its soft-focus erotic cover photograph and romantic revival typeface, this 1968 Grove Press paperback belongs to the sixties wave of republishing Victorian literature with groovy, modern redesigns. Please note: the book reflects the language and social norms of its era, some of which may feel outdated or offensive now.