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Download high-resolution image Look inside

My Secret Life

An Erotic Diary of Victorian London

Author Anonymous
Introduction by James R. Kincaid
Afterword by Paul Sawyer
Look inside
Mass Market Paperback
$9.95 US
Berkley / NAL | Signet
On sale Nov 06, 2007 | 624 Pages | 978-0-451-53072-1
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  • English > Literature > British Literature – Non-Fiction
  • History > Period History: England, Ireland, and U.K. > 19th Century
  • History > Topical History > History of Gender and Sexuality
  • About
  • Excerpt
  • Author
From his precocious childhood to the end of what he calls his “amatory career,” an adventurous Victorian known only as “Walter” records a breathtaking carnal epic through hundreds of sexual encounters with one or more nursemaids, prostitutes, cousins, actresses, workingmen, and other men’s wives. In ruling everything sexual within the realm of possibility, Walter reveals “varied delights…whims and fancies normal and abnormal,” sexual violence, fetishes—and sometimes, surprisingly, love. From his many escapades, he learns an invaluable lesson: “One can never know too much concerning human nature.” Portraying an era of notorious repression, in which the appearance of propriety had to be strictly maintained, My Secret Life provides a rare look at the hidden side of Victorian life: the upstairs and downstairs encounters where nothing is “proper”—or forbidden. First published in London around 1900, this landmark work freshly illuminates the complex sexual dynamics of a society strictly divided between rich and poor, male and female, sexual and chaste. In James Kincaid’s abridgment, Walter and his world come to vivid life in new and often surprising ways.
 
Edited and with an Introduction by James Kincaid and with an Afterword by Paul Sawyer

FIRST PREFACE

I began these memoirs when about twenty-five years old, having from youth kept a diary of some sort, which perhaps from habit made me think of recording my inner and secret life.

When I began it, I had scarcely read a baudy book, none of which, excepting Fanny Hill, appeared to me to be truthful: that did, and it does so still; the others telling of récherché eroticisms or of inordinate copulative powers, of the strange twists, tricks, and fancies of matured voluptuousness and philosophical lewedness, seemed to my comparative ignorance as baudy imaginings or lying inventions, not worthy of belief; although I now know, by experience, that they may be true enough, however eccentric and improbable, they may appear to the uninitiated.

Fanny Hill’s was a woman’s experience. Written perhaps by a woman, where was a man’s written with equal truth? That book has no baudy word in it; but baudy acts need the baudy ejaculations; the erotic, full-flavored expressions, which even the chastest indulge in when lust, or love, is in its full tide of performance. So I determined to write my private life freely as to fact, and in the spirit of the lustful acts done by me, or witnessed; it is written therefore with absolute truth and without any regard whatever for what the world calls decency. Decency and voluptuousness in its fullest acceptance cannot exist together, one would kill the other; the poetry of copulation I have only experienced with a few women, which however neither prevented them nor me from calling a spade a spade.

I began it for my amusement; when many years had been chronicled I tired of it and ceased. Some ten years afterwards I met a woman, with whom, or with those she helped me to, I did, said, saw, and heard well nigh everything a man and woman could do with their genitals, and began to narrate those events, when quite fresh in my memory, a great variety of incidents extending over four years or more. Then I lost sight of her, and my amorous amusements for a while were simpler, but that part of my history was complete.

After a little while, I set to work to describe the events of the intervening years of my youth and early middle age, which included most of my gallant intrigues and adventures of a frisky order; but not the more lascivious ones of later years. Then an illness caused me to think seriously of burning the whole. But not liking to destroy my labor, I laid it aside again for a couple of years. Then another illness gave me long uninterrupted leisure; I read my manuscript and filled in some occurrences which I had forgotten but which my diary enabled me to place in their proper order. This will account for the difference in style in places, which I now observe; and a very needless repetition of voluptuous descriptions, which I had forgotten and had been before described; that however is inevitable, for human copulation, vary the incidents leading up to it as you may, is, and must be, at all times much the same affair.

Then, for the first time, I thought I would print my work that had been commenced more than twenty years before, but hesitated. I then had entered my maturity, and on to the most lascivious portion of my life, the events were disjointed, and fragmentary and my amusement was to describe them just after they occurred. Most frequently the next day I wrote all down with much prolixity; since, I have much abbreviated it.

I had from youth an excellent memory, but about sexual matters a wonderful one. Women were the pleasure of my life. I loved cunt, but also who had it; I like the woman I fucked and not simply the cunt I fucked, and therein is a great difference. I recollect even now in a degree which astonishes me, the face, colour, stature, thighs, backside, and cunt, of well nigh every woman I have had, who was not a mere casual, and even of some who were. The clothes they wore, the houses and rooms in which I had them, were before me mentally as I wrote, the way the bed and furniture were placed, the side of the room the windows were on, I remembered perfectly; and all the important events I can fix as to time, sufficiently nearly by reference to my diary, in which the contemporaneous circumstances of my life are recorded.

I recollect also largely what we said and did, and generally our baudy amusements. Where I fail to have done so, I have left description blank, rather than attempt to make a story coherent by inserting what was merely probable. I could not now account for my course of action, or why I did this, or said that, my conduct seems strange, foolish, absurd, very frequently, that of some women equally so, but I can but state what did occur.

In a few cases, I have, for what even seems to me very strange, suggested reasons or causes, but only where the facts seem by themselves to be very improbable, but have not exaggerated anything willingly. When I have named the number of times I have fucked a woman in my youth, I may occasionally be in error, it is difficult to be quite accurate on such points after a lapse of time. But as before said, in many cases the incidents were written down a few weeks and often within a few days after they occurred. I do not attempt to pose as a Hercules in copulation, there are quite sufficient braggarts on that head, much intercourse with gay women, and doctors, makes me doubt the wonderful feats in coition some men tell of.

I have one fear about publicity, it is that of having done a few things by curiosity and impulse (temporary aberrations) which even professed libertines may cry fie on. There are plenty who will cry fie who have done all and worse than I have and habitually, but crying out at the sins of others was always a way of hiding one’s own iniquity. Yet from that cause perhaps no mortal eye but mine will see this history.

The Christian names of the servants mentioned are generally the true ones, the other names mostly false, tho phonetically resembling the true ones. Initials nearly always the true ones. In most cases the women they represent are dead or lost to me. Streets and baudy houses named are nearly always correct. Most of the houses named are now closed or pulled down; but any middle-aged man about town would recognize them. Where a road, house, room, or garden is described, the description is exactly true, even to the situation of a tree, chair, bed, sofa, pisspot. The district is sometimes given wrongly; but it matters little whether Brompton be substituted for Hackney, or Camden Town for Walworth. Where however, owing to the incidents, it is needful, the places of amusement are given correctly. The Tower, and Ar. gyle rooms, for example. All this is done to prevent giving pain to some, perhaps still living, for I have no malice to gratify.

I have mystified family affairs, but if I say I had ten cousins when I had but six, or that one aunt’s house was in Surrey instead of Kent, or in Lancashire, it breaks the clue and cannot matter to the reader. But my doings with man and woman are as true as gospel. If I say that I saw, or did, that with a cousin, male or female, it was with a cousin and no mere acquaintance; if with a servant, it was with a servant; if with a casual acquaintance, it is equally true. Nor if I say I had that woman, and did this or that with her, or felt or did aught else with a man, is there a word of untruth, excepting as to the place at which the incidents occurred. But even those are mostly correctly given; this is intended to be a true history, and not a lie.

SECOND PREFACE

Some years have passed away since I penned the foregoing, and it is not printed. I have since gone through abnormal phases of amatory life, have done and seen things, had tastes and letches which years ago I thought were the dreams of erotic mad-men; these are all described, the manuscript has grown into unmanageable bulk; shall it, can it, be printed? What will be said or thought of me, what became of the manuscript if found when I am dead? Better to destroy the whole, it has fulfilled its purpose in amusing me, now let it go to the flames!

I have read my manuscript through; what reminiscences! I had actually forgotten some of the early ones; how true the detail strikes me as I read of my early experiences; had it not been written then it never could have been written now; has anybody but myself faithfully made such a record? It would be a sin to burn all this, whatever society may say, it is but a narrative of human life, perhaps the every day life of thousands, if the confession could be had.

What strikes me as curious in reading it is the monotony of the course I have pursued towards women who were not of the gay class; it has been as similar and repetitive as fucking itself; do all men act so, does every man kiss, coax, hint smuttily, then talk baudily, snatch a feel, smell his fingers, assault, and win, exactly as I have done? Is every woman offended, say “no,” then “oh!” blush, be angry, refuse, close her thighs, after a struggle open them, and yield to her lust as mine have done? A conclave of whores telling the truth, and of Romish Priests, could alone settle the point. Have all men had the strange letches which late in life have enraptured me, though in early days the idea of them revolted me? I can never know this; my experience, if printed, may enable others to compare as I cannot.

Shall it be burnt or printed? How many years have passed in this indecision? why fear? it is for others’ good and not my own if preserved.

. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Anonymous. View titles by Anonymous

About

From his precocious childhood to the end of what he calls his “amatory career,” an adventurous Victorian known only as “Walter” records a breathtaking carnal epic through hundreds of sexual encounters with one or more nursemaids, prostitutes, cousins, actresses, workingmen, and other men’s wives. In ruling everything sexual within the realm of possibility, Walter reveals “varied delights…whims and fancies normal and abnormal,” sexual violence, fetishes—and sometimes, surprisingly, love. From his many escapades, he learns an invaluable lesson: “One can never know too much concerning human nature.” Portraying an era of notorious repression, in which the appearance of propriety had to be strictly maintained, My Secret Life provides a rare look at the hidden side of Victorian life: the upstairs and downstairs encounters where nothing is “proper”—or forbidden. First published in London around 1900, this landmark work freshly illuminates the complex sexual dynamics of a society strictly divided between rich and poor, male and female, sexual and chaste. In James Kincaid’s abridgment, Walter and his world come to vivid life in new and often surprising ways.
 
Edited and with an Introduction by James Kincaid and with an Afterword by Paul Sawyer

Excerpt

FIRST PREFACE

I began these memoirs when about twenty-five years old, having from youth kept a diary of some sort, which perhaps from habit made me think of recording my inner and secret life.

When I began it, I had scarcely read a baudy book, none of which, excepting Fanny Hill, appeared to me to be truthful: that did, and it does so still; the others telling of récherché eroticisms or of inordinate copulative powers, of the strange twists, tricks, and fancies of matured voluptuousness and philosophical lewedness, seemed to my comparative ignorance as baudy imaginings or lying inventions, not worthy of belief; although I now know, by experience, that they may be true enough, however eccentric and improbable, they may appear to the uninitiated.

Fanny Hill’s was a woman’s experience. Written perhaps by a woman, where was a man’s written with equal truth? That book has no baudy word in it; but baudy acts need the baudy ejaculations; the erotic, full-flavored expressions, which even the chastest indulge in when lust, or love, is in its full tide of performance. So I determined to write my private life freely as to fact, and in the spirit of the lustful acts done by me, or witnessed; it is written therefore with absolute truth and without any regard whatever for what the world calls decency. Decency and voluptuousness in its fullest acceptance cannot exist together, one would kill the other; the poetry of copulation I have only experienced with a few women, which however neither prevented them nor me from calling a spade a spade.

I began it for my amusement; when many years had been chronicled I tired of it and ceased. Some ten years afterwards I met a woman, with whom, or with those she helped me to, I did, said, saw, and heard well nigh everything a man and woman could do with their genitals, and began to narrate those events, when quite fresh in my memory, a great variety of incidents extending over four years or more. Then I lost sight of her, and my amorous amusements for a while were simpler, but that part of my history was complete.

After a little while, I set to work to describe the events of the intervening years of my youth and early middle age, which included most of my gallant intrigues and adventures of a frisky order; but not the more lascivious ones of later years. Then an illness caused me to think seriously of burning the whole. But not liking to destroy my labor, I laid it aside again for a couple of years. Then another illness gave me long uninterrupted leisure; I read my manuscript and filled in some occurrences which I had forgotten but which my diary enabled me to place in their proper order. This will account for the difference in style in places, which I now observe; and a very needless repetition of voluptuous descriptions, which I had forgotten and had been before described; that however is inevitable, for human copulation, vary the incidents leading up to it as you may, is, and must be, at all times much the same affair.

Then, for the first time, I thought I would print my work that had been commenced more than twenty years before, but hesitated. I then had entered my maturity, and on to the most lascivious portion of my life, the events were disjointed, and fragmentary and my amusement was to describe them just after they occurred. Most frequently the next day I wrote all down with much prolixity; since, I have much abbreviated it.

I had from youth an excellent memory, but about sexual matters a wonderful one. Women were the pleasure of my life. I loved cunt, but also who had it; I like the woman I fucked and not simply the cunt I fucked, and therein is a great difference. I recollect even now in a degree which astonishes me, the face, colour, stature, thighs, backside, and cunt, of well nigh every woman I have had, who was not a mere casual, and even of some who were. The clothes they wore, the houses and rooms in which I had them, were before me mentally as I wrote, the way the bed and furniture were placed, the side of the room the windows were on, I remembered perfectly; and all the important events I can fix as to time, sufficiently nearly by reference to my diary, in which the contemporaneous circumstances of my life are recorded.

I recollect also largely what we said and did, and generally our baudy amusements. Where I fail to have done so, I have left description blank, rather than attempt to make a story coherent by inserting what was merely probable. I could not now account for my course of action, or why I did this, or said that, my conduct seems strange, foolish, absurd, very frequently, that of some women equally so, but I can but state what did occur.

In a few cases, I have, for what even seems to me very strange, suggested reasons or causes, but only where the facts seem by themselves to be very improbable, but have not exaggerated anything willingly. When I have named the number of times I have fucked a woman in my youth, I may occasionally be in error, it is difficult to be quite accurate on such points after a lapse of time. But as before said, in many cases the incidents were written down a few weeks and often within a few days after they occurred. I do not attempt to pose as a Hercules in copulation, there are quite sufficient braggarts on that head, much intercourse with gay women, and doctors, makes me doubt the wonderful feats in coition some men tell of.

I have one fear about publicity, it is that of having done a few things by curiosity and impulse (temporary aberrations) which even professed libertines may cry fie on. There are plenty who will cry fie who have done all and worse than I have and habitually, but crying out at the sins of others was always a way of hiding one’s own iniquity. Yet from that cause perhaps no mortal eye but mine will see this history.

The Christian names of the servants mentioned are generally the true ones, the other names mostly false, tho phonetically resembling the true ones. Initials nearly always the true ones. In most cases the women they represent are dead or lost to me. Streets and baudy houses named are nearly always correct. Most of the houses named are now closed or pulled down; but any middle-aged man about town would recognize them. Where a road, house, room, or garden is described, the description is exactly true, even to the situation of a tree, chair, bed, sofa, pisspot. The district is sometimes given wrongly; but it matters little whether Brompton be substituted for Hackney, or Camden Town for Walworth. Where however, owing to the incidents, it is needful, the places of amusement are given correctly. The Tower, and Ar. gyle rooms, for example. All this is done to prevent giving pain to some, perhaps still living, for I have no malice to gratify.

I have mystified family affairs, but if I say I had ten cousins when I had but six, or that one aunt’s house was in Surrey instead of Kent, or in Lancashire, it breaks the clue and cannot matter to the reader. But my doings with man and woman are as true as gospel. If I say that I saw, or did, that with a cousin, male or female, it was with a cousin and no mere acquaintance; if with a servant, it was with a servant; if with a casual acquaintance, it is equally true. Nor if I say I had that woman, and did this or that with her, or felt or did aught else with a man, is there a word of untruth, excepting as to the place at which the incidents occurred. But even those are mostly correctly given; this is intended to be a true history, and not a lie.

SECOND PREFACE

Some years have passed away since I penned the foregoing, and it is not printed. I have since gone through abnormal phases of amatory life, have done and seen things, had tastes and letches which years ago I thought were the dreams of erotic mad-men; these are all described, the manuscript has grown into unmanageable bulk; shall it, can it, be printed? What will be said or thought of me, what became of the manuscript if found when I am dead? Better to destroy the whole, it has fulfilled its purpose in amusing me, now let it go to the flames!

I have read my manuscript through; what reminiscences! I had actually forgotten some of the early ones; how true the detail strikes me as I read of my early experiences; had it not been written then it never could have been written now; has anybody but myself faithfully made such a record? It would be a sin to burn all this, whatever society may say, it is but a narrative of human life, perhaps the every day life of thousands, if the confession could be had.

What strikes me as curious in reading it is the monotony of the course I have pursued towards women who were not of the gay class; it has been as similar and repetitive as fucking itself; do all men act so, does every man kiss, coax, hint smuttily, then talk baudily, snatch a feel, smell his fingers, assault, and win, exactly as I have done? Is every woman offended, say “no,” then “oh!” blush, be angry, refuse, close her thighs, after a struggle open them, and yield to her lust as mine have done? A conclave of whores telling the truth, and of Romish Priests, could alone settle the point. Have all men had the strange letches which late in life have enraptured me, though in early days the idea of them revolted me? I can never know this; my experience, if printed, may enable others to compare as I cannot.

Shall it be burnt or printed? How many years have passed in this indecision? why fear? it is for others’ good and not my own if preserved.

. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

Author

Anonymous. View titles by Anonymous

Additional formats

  • My Secret Life
    My Secret Life
    An Erotic Diary of Victorian London
    Anonymous
    978-1-101-00690-0
    $1.99 US
    Ebook
    Signet
    Nov 06, 2007
  • My Secret Life
    My Secret Life
    An Erotic Diary of Victorian London
    Anonymous
    978-1-101-00690-0
    $1.99 US
    Ebook
    Signet
    Nov 06, 2007

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    Zen-Inspired Translations of the Psalms
    Anonymous
    978-0-14-219613-7
    $15.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Books
    Feb 25, 2003
  • Bhagavad-Gita
    Bhagavad-Gita
    The Song of God
    Anonymous
    978-0-451-52844-5
    $6.95 US
    Mass Market Paperback
    Signet
    Jul 01, 2002
  • Meditations on the Tarot
    Meditations on the Tarot
    A Journey into Christian Hermeticism
    Anonymous
    978-1-58542-161-9
    $22.95 US
    Paperback
    TarcherPerigee
    Jun 10, 2002
  • Njal's Saga
    Njal's Saga
    Anonymous
    978-0-14-044769-9
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    May 28, 2002
  • The Cloud of Unknowing and Other Works
    The Cloud of Unknowing and Other Works
    Anonymous
    978-0-14-044762-0
    $15.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    Jan 29, 2002
  • Judah the Maccabee
    Judah the Maccabee
    Anonymous
    978-0-375-41927-0
    $1.63 US
    Audiobook Download
    Random House Audio
    Dec 19, 2000
  • The Classic of Mountains and Seas
    The Classic of Mountains and Seas
    Anonymous
    978-0-14-044719-4
    $19.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    Jan 01, 2000
  • The Saga of the Volsungs
    The Saga of the Volsungs
    Jesse L. Byock, Anonymous
    978-0-14-044738-5
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    Jan 01, 2000
  • The Saga of King Hrolf Kraki
    The Saga of King Hrolf Kraki
    Anonymous
    978-0-14-043593-1
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    Feb 01, 1999
  • The Pearl
    The Pearl
    A Journal of Facetive and Voluptuous Reading
    Anonymous
    978-0-345-41004-7
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Ballantine Books
    Sep 29, 1996
  • Aladdin and Other Tales from the Arabian Nights
    Aladdin and Other Tales from the Arabian Nights
    Illustrated by W. Heath Robinson
    Anonymous, W. Heath Robinson
    978-0-679-42533-5
    $17.95 US
    Hardcover
    Everyman's Library
    May 11, 1993
  • The Life of Milarepa
    The Life of Milarepa
    A New Translation from the Tibetan
    Anonymous
    978-0-14-019350-3
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Books
    Feb 01, 1992
  • The Laws of Manu
    The Laws of Manu
    Anonymous
    978-0-14-044540-4
    $19.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    Jan 07, 1992
  • The Greek Alexander Romance
    The Greek Alexander Romance
    Anonymous
    978-0-14-044560-2
    $14.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    Nov 05, 1991
  • The Song of Roland
    The Song of Roland
    Anonymous
    978-0-14-044532-9
    $13.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    Jun 05, 1990
  • Poems of Heaven and Hell from Ancient Mesopotamia
    Poems of Heaven and Hell from Ancient Mesopotamia
    Anonymous
    978-0-14-044249-6
    $14.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    Jun 06, 1989
  • Eyrbyggja Saga
    Eyrbyggja Saga
    Anonymous
    978-0-14-044530-5
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    Jun 06, 1989
  • A New Day
    A New Day
    365 Meditations for Personal and Spiritual Growth
    Anonymous
    978-0-553-34591-9
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Bantam
    Dec 01, 1988
  • Selections from the Carmina Burana
    Selections from the Carmina Burana
    A New Verse Translation
    Anonymous
    978-0-14-044440-7
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    May 06, 1986
  • The Poem of the Cid
    The Poem of the Cid
    Dual Language Edition
    Anonymous
    978-0-14-044446-9
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    Jan 08, 1985
  • Alfred the Great
    Alfred the Great
    Asser's Life of King Alfred and Other Contemporary Sources
    Anonymous
    978-0-14-044409-4
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    Jan 03, 1984
  • Orkneyinga Saga
    Orkneyinga Saga
    The History of the Earls of Orkney
    Anonymous
    978-0-14-044383-7
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    Jul 30, 1981
  • The Mabinogion
    The Mabinogion
    Anonymous
    978-0-14-044322-6
    $14.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    Nov 18, 1976
  • Lives of the Later Caesars
    Lives of the Later Caesars
    Augustan History, Part 1; Lives of Nerva and Trajan
    Anonymous
    978-0-14-044308-0
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    Jun 24, 1976
  • Holy Bible
    Holy Bible
    Anonymous
    978-0-452-00647-8
    $24.00 US
    Paperback
    Plume
    Dec 01, 1974
  • The Lost Books of the Bible and the Forgotten Books of Eden
    The Lost Books of the Bible and the Forgotten Books of Eden
    Anonymous
    978-0-452-00944-8
    $25.00 US
    Paperback
    Plume
    Dec 01, 1974
  • Tales from the Thousand and One Nights
    Tales from the Thousand and One Nights
    Anonymous, William Harvey
    978-0-14-044289-2
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    Aug 30, 1973
  • The Dhammapada
    The Dhammapada
    Anonymous
    978-0-14-044284-7
    $11.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    May 30, 1973
  • The Death of King Arthur
    The Death of King Arthur
    Anonymous
    978-0-14-044255-7
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    Apr 30, 1972
  • Hrafnkel's Saga and Other Icelandic Stories
    Hrafnkel's Saga and Other Icelandic Stories
    Anonymous
    978-0-14-044238-0
    $15.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    Apr 30, 1971
  • The Quest of the Holy Grail
    The Quest of the Holy Grail
    Anonymous
    978-0-14-044220-5
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    Feb 28, 1969
  • The Nibelungenlied
    The Nibelungenlied
    Prose Translation
    Anonymous
    978-0-14-044137-6
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    Apr 30, 1965
  • Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
    Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
    Anonymous
    978-0-14-044092-8
    $12.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    Nov 30, 1959
  • Buddhist Scriptures
    Buddhist Scriptures
    Anonymous
    978-0-14-044088-1
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    Jul 30, 1959
  • Beowulf
    Beowulf
    A Prose Translation
    Anonymous
    978-0-14-044070-6
    $13.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    May 30, 1957
  • The Kingfisher Secret
    The Kingfisher Secret
    Anonymous
    978-0-7710-0169-7
    $26.00 US
    Hardcover
    McClelland & Stewart
    Oct 16, 2018
  • The Works of the Gawain Poet
    The Works of the Gawain Poet
    Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl, Patience, Cleanness
    Anonymous
    978-0-14-042414-0
    $27.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    Jun 30, 2015
  • Tales from 1,001 Nights
    Tales from 1,001 Nights
    Aladdin, Ali Baba and Other Favourites
    Anonymous
    978-0-14-119166-9
    $20.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    Jun 26, 2012
  • Greek Fiction
    Greek Fiction
    Callirhoe, Daphnis and Chloe, Letters of Chion
    Anonymous, Chariton, Longus
    978-0-14-044925-9
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    Oct 25, 2011
  • The Elder Edda
    The Elder Edda
    A Book of Viking Lore
    Anonymous
    978-0-14-043585-6
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    Jul 26, 2011
  • The Dhammapada
    The Dhammapada
    Anonymous
    978-0-14-044941-9
    $13.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    Nov 30, 2010
  • The Arabian Nights: Tales of 1,001 Nights
    The Arabian Nights: Tales of 1,001 Nights
    Volume 1
    Anonymous
    978-0-14-044938-9
    $21.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    May 25, 2010
  • The Arabian Nights: Tales of 1,001 Nights
    The Arabian Nights: Tales of 1,001 Nights
    Volume 2
    Anonymous
    978-0-14-044939-6
    $21.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    May 25, 2010
  • The Arabian Nights: Tales of 1,001 Nights
    The Arabian Nights: Tales of 1,001 Nights
    Volume 3
    Anonymous
    978-0-14-044940-2
    $21.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    May 25, 2010
  • The Arabian Nights, Volume II
    The Arabian Nights, Volume II
    More Marvels and Wonders of the Thousand and One Nights
    Anonymous
    978-0-451-53148-3
    $8.95 US
    Mass Market Paperback
    Signet
    Feb 02, 2010
  • At My Best
    At My Best
    365 Meditations For The Physical, Spiritual, And Emotional Well-Being
    Anonymous
    978-0-307-41716-9
    $5.99 US
    Ebook
    Bantam
    Oct 14, 2009
  • The Mahabharata
    The Mahabharata
    Anonymous
    978-0-14-044681-4
    $20.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    Jul 28, 2009
  • The Song of the Cid
    The Song of the Cid
    A Dual Language Edition with Parallel Text
    Anonymous
    978-0-14-310565-7
    $19.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    Mar 31, 2009
  • The Bhagavad Gita
    The Bhagavad Gita
    Anonymous
    978-0-14-044790-3
    $14.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    Oct 28, 2008
  • The First Poems in English
    The First Poems in English
    Anonymous
    978-0-14-043378-4
    $19.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    Jul 29, 2008
  • The Vinland Sagas
    The Vinland Sagas
    Anonymous
    978-0-14-044776-7
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    Jul 29, 2008
  • The Saga of the People of Laxardal and Bolli Bollason's Tale
    The Saga of the People of Laxardal and Bolli Bollason's Tale
    Anonymous
    978-0-14-044775-0
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    Jun 04, 2008
  • Beowulf
    Beowulf
    978-0-451-53096-7
    $4.95 US
    Mass Market Paperback
    Signet
    Jun 03, 2008
  • The Arabian Nights, Volume I
    The Arabian Nights, Volume I
    The Marvels and Wonders of The Thousand and One Nights
    Anonymous
    978-0-451-53059-2
    $9.95 US
    Mass Market Paperback
    Signet
    Jul 03, 2007
  • Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
    Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
    Anonymous
    978-0-14-042453-9
    $12.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    Apr 24, 2007
  • Primary Colors
    Primary Colors
    A Novel of Politics
    Joe Klein, Anonymous
    978-0-8129-7647-2
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Random House Trade Paperbacks
    Oct 17, 2006
  • The Saga of Grettir the Strong
    The Saga of Grettir the Strong
    Anonymous
    978-0-14-044773-6
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    Nov 29, 2005
  • The Rig Veda
    The Rig Veda
    Anonymous
    978-0-14-044989-1
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    Sep 27, 2005
  • Mencius
    Mencius
    Anonymous
    978-0-14-044971-6
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    Jun 28, 2005
  • Egil's Saga
    Egil's Saga
    Anonymous
    978-0-14-044770-5
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    Apr 26, 2005
  • Hindu Myths
    Hindu Myths
    A Sourcebook Translated from the Sanskrit
    Anonymous
    978-0-14-044990-7
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    Sep 28, 2004
  • Buddhist Scriptures
    Buddhist Scriptures
    Anonymous
    978-0-14-044758-3
    $20.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    Aug 31, 2004
  • Krishna: the Beautiful Legend of God
    Krishna: the Beautiful Legend of God
    (Srimad Bhagavata Purana Book X)
    Anonymous
    978-0-14-044799-6
    $21.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    May 25, 2004
  • The Upanishads
    The Upanishads
    Anonymous
    978-0-14-044749-1
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    Apr 27, 2004
  • Lazarillo de Tormes and the Swindler
    Lazarillo de Tormes and the Swindler
    Two Spanish Picaresque Novels
    Anonymous
    978-0-14-044900-6
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    Aug 26, 2003
  • Beowulf
    Beowulf
    A Verse Translation
    Anonymous
    978-0-14-044931-0
    $12.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    Apr 29, 2003
  • The Bhagavad Gita
    The Bhagavad Gita
    Anonymous
    978-0-14-044918-1
    $11.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    Feb 25, 2003
  • Opening to You
    Opening to You
    Zen-Inspired Translations of the Psalms
    Anonymous
    978-0-14-219613-7
    $15.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Books
    Feb 25, 2003
  • Bhagavad-Gita
    Bhagavad-Gita
    The Song of God
    Anonymous
    978-0-451-52844-5
    $6.95 US
    Mass Market Paperback
    Signet
    Jul 01, 2002
  • Meditations on the Tarot
    Meditations on the Tarot
    A Journey into Christian Hermeticism
    Anonymous
    978-1-58542-161-9
    $22.95 US
    Paperback
    TarcherPerigee
    Jun 10, 2002
  • Njal's Saga
    Njal's Saga
    Anonymous
    978-0-14-044769-9
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    May 28, 2002
  • The Cloud of Unknowing and Other Works
    The Cloud of Unknowing and Other Works
    Anonymous
    978-0-14-044762-0
    $15.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    Jan 29, 2002
  • Judah the Maccabee
    Judah the Maccabee
    Anonymous
    978-0-375-41927-0
    $1.63 US
    Audiobook Download
    Random House Audio
    Dec 19, 2000
  • The Classic of Mountains and Seas
    The Classic of Mountains and Seas
    Anonymous
    978-0-14-044719-4
    $19.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    Jan 01, 2000
  • The Saga of the Volsungs
    The Saga of the Volsungs
    Jesse L. Byock, Anonymous
    978-0-14-044738-5
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    Jan 01, 2000
  • The Saga of King Hrolf Kraki
    The Saga of King Hrolf Kraki
    Anonymous
    978-0-14-043593-1
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    Feb 01, 1999
  • The Pearl
    The Pearl
    A Journal of Facetive and Voluptuous Reading
    Anonymous
    978-0-345-41004-7
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Ballantine Books
    Sep 29, 1996
  • Aladdin and Other Tales from the Arabian Nights
    Aladdin and Other Tales from the Arabian Nights
    Illustrated by W. Heath Robinson
    Anonymous, W. Heath Robinson
    978-0-679-42533-5
    $17.95 US
    Hardcover
    Everyman's Library
    May 11, 1993
  • The Life of Milarepa
    The Life of Milarepa
    A New Translation from the Tibetan
    Anonymous
    978-0-14-019350-3
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Books
    Feb 01, 1992
  • The Laws of Manu
    The Laws of Manu
    Anonymous
    978-0-14-044540-4
    $19.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    Jan 07, 1992
  • The Greek Alexander Romance
    The Greek Alexander Romance
    Anonymous
    978-0-14-044560-2
    $14.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    Nov 05, 1991
  • The Song of Roland
    The Song of Roland
    Anonymous
    978-0-14-044532-9
    $13.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    Jun 05, 1990
  • Poems of Heaven and Hell from Ancient Mesopotamia
    Poems of Heaven and Hell from Ancient Mesopotamia
    Anonymous
    978-0-14-044249-6
    $14.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    Jun 06, 1989
  • Eyrbyggja Saga
    Eyrbyggja Saga
    Anonymous
    978-0-14-044530-5
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    Jun 06, 1989
  • A New Day
    A New Day
    365 Meditations for Personal and Spiritual Growth
    Anonymous
    978-0-553-34591-9
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Bantam
    Dec 01, 1988
  • Selections from the Carmina Burana
    Selections from the Carmina Burana
    A New Verse Translation
    Anonymous
    978-0-14-044440-7
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    May 06, 1986
  • The Poem of the Cid
    The Poem of the Cid
    Dual Language Edition
    Anonymous
    978-0-14-044446-9
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    Jan 08, 1985
  • Alfred the Great
    Alfred the Great
    Asser's Life of King Alfred and Other Contemporary Sources
    Anonymous
    978-0-14-044409-4
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    Jan 03, 1984
  • Orkneyinga Saga
    Orkneyinga Saga
    The History of the Earls of Orkney
    Anonymous
    978-0-14-044383-7
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    Jul 30, 1981
  • The Mabinogion
    The Mabinogion
    Anonymous
    978-0-14-044322-6
    $14.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    Nov 18, 1976
  • Lives of the Later Caesars
    Lives of the Later Caesars
    Augustan History, Part 1; Lives of Nerva and Trajan
    Anonymous
    978-0-14-044308-0
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    Jun 24, 1976
  • Holy Bible
    Holy Bible
    Anonymous
    978-0-452-00647-8
    $24.00 US
    Paperback
    Plume
    Dec 01, 1974
  • The Lost Books of the Bible and the Forgotten Books of Eden
    The Lost Books of the Bible and the Forgotten Books of Eden
    Anonymous
    978-0-452-00944-8
    $25.00 US
    Paperback
    Plume
    Dec 01, 1974
  • Tales from the Thousand and One Nights
    Tales from the Thousand and One Nights
    Anonymous, William Harvey
    978-0-14-044289-2
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    Aug 30, 1973
  • The Dhammapada
    The Dhammapada
    Anonymous
    978-0-14-044284-7
    $11.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    May 30, 1973
  • The Death of King Arthur
    The Death of King Arthur
    Anonymous
    978-0-14-044255-7
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    Apr 30, 1972
  • Hrafnkel's Saga and Other Icelandic Stories
    Hrafnkel's Saga and Other Icelandic Stories
    Anonymous
    978-0-14-044238-0
    $15.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    Apr 30, 1971
  • The Quest of the Holy Grail
    The Quest of the Holy Grail
    Anonymous
    978-0-14-044220-5
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    Feb 28, 1969
  • The Nibelungenlied
    The Nibelungenlied
    Prose Translation
    Anonymous
    978-0-14-044137-6
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    Apr 30, 1965
  • Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
    Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
    Anonymous
    978-0-14-044092-8
    $12.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    Nov 30, 1959
  • Buddhist Scriptures
    Buddhist Scriptures
    Anonymous
    978-0-14-044088-1
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    Jul 30, 1959
  • Beowulf
    Beowulf
    A Prose Translation
    Anonymous
    978-0-14-044070-6
    $13.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    May 30, 1957
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