The Crazy, Perverted Victorian List

Yesterday I sat my final entitled 'Madness and Sexuality in Victorian Literature'. It is a class that I have absolutely loved, of course because of the veiled sexual metaphor, but also because the rise of psychiatry in the Victorian era is fascinating, and appalling.

Basil by Wilkie Collins

Not Collins' most famous work, but full of gothic craziness. There is a particularly enjoyable Freudian dream (decades before Freud).

The Professor by Charlotte Bronte

Another creepy Victorian male protagonist. Another work of psychological fiction from the perturbed mind of Charlotte Bronte.

Tithonus by Lord Alfred Tennyson

Lucretius by Lord Alfred Tennyson

The Lady of Shallot by Lord Alfred Tennyson

Fatima by Lord Alfred Tennyson

Mariana by Lord Alfred Tennyson

Tennyson is the master of (actually explicit) sexual metaphor. His genius mind was full of filth. Any lover of language and erotica will find their appetites amply satisfied.

Porphyria's Lover by Robert Browning

The Last Ride Together by Robert Browning

The Statue and the Bust by Robert Browning

Soliloquey of the Spanish Cloister by Robert Browning

Browning, in my humble opinion, is a poor man's Tennyson, but his mastery of the dramatic monologue is certainly worthy of note. Oh, and of course the filth is there, in abundance.

Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti

Possibly the greatest of the 'poetry' section. Glorious writing, superb fodder for homoerotic speculation.

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

'What?', I hear you cry, 'Jekyll and Hyde isn't erotic!' To which I reply, reread it. Homocentric, homoerotic and super creepy.

Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon

The Female Malady: Women, Madness and English Culture, 1830-1980 by Elaine Showalter

Lady Audley and her bonkers secret finds a perfect companion piece in Showalter's fascinating study of the history of women and madness in English culture.

Dracula by Bram Stoker

Oh Twilight, you sad excuse for literature, you focused on the sexual tension of teenage angst when Stoker already showed us the crazed sexuality of vampires, and it is all about orality. Fools!

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

Oh fantastic, fantastic Oscar. Oh glorious, wonderful literature.

The History of Sexuality: The Will to Knowledge by Michel Foucault

The Repressive Hypothesis, probably the seminal work on sexual repression (Ha, knew I'd find a way to work semen into the discussion)