Charles Hirsch (bookseller)

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Charles Hirsch was a French bookseller in Victorian London who sold French literature and ran a clandestine trade in expensive pornography. He was involved in the writing of Teleny, or The Reverse of the Medal , an early work of homosexual pornography, and described Oscar Wilde's involvement in its compilation.

The French are an ethnic group and nation who are identified with the country of France. This connection may be ethnic, legal, historical, or cultural.

London Capital of the United Kingdom

London is the capital and largest city of both England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south-east of England, at the head of its 50-mile (80 km) estuary leading to the North Sea, London has been a major settlement for two millennia. Londinium was founded by the Romans. The City of London, London's ancient core − an area of just 1.12 square miles (2.9 km2) and colloquially known as the Square Mile − retains boundaries that follow closely its medieval limits. The City of Westminster is also an Inner London borough holding city status. Greater London is governed by the Mayor of London and the London Assembly.

Pornography explicit portrayal of sexual acts and intercourse on media

Pornography is the portrayal of sexual subject matter for the exclusive purpose of sexual arousal. Pornography may be presented in a variety of media, including books, magazines, postcards, photographs, sculpture, drawing, painting, animation, sound recording, writing, film, video, and video games. The term applies to the depiction of the act rather than the act itself, and so does not include live exhibitions like sex shows and striptease. The primary subjects of present-day pornographic depictions are pornographic models, who pose for still photographs, and pornographic actors or "porn stars", who perform in pornographic films. If dramatic skills are not involved, a performer in pornographic media may also be called a model.

Hirsch's bookshop Librairie Parisienne was at Coventry Street, London. [1] [2] [3] He also published in Paris and translated pornographic works from French to English and vice versa. [4] [5] He published a translation of Teleny into French in 1934. [6]

Coventry Street London street, within the City of Westminster

Coventry Street is a short street in the West End of London, connecting Piccadilly Circus to Leicester Square. Part of the street is a section of the A4, a major road through London. It is named after the politician Henry Coventry, secretary of state to Charles II.

Paris Capital of France

Paris is the capital and most populous city of France, with an area of 105 square kilometres and an official estimated population of 2,140,526 residents as of 1 January 2019. Since the 17th century, Paris has been one of Europe's major centres of finance, commerce, fashion, science, and the arts.

Hirsch and Wilde

Hirsch knew Oscar Wilde, and claimed to have sold him various works of erotica, including The Sins of the Cities of the Plain in 1890. [2] [7] [8] [9] [10]

The Sins of the Cities of the Plain; or, The Recollections of a Mary-Ann, with Short Essays on Sodomy and Tribadism, by the pseudonymous "Jack Saul", is one of the first exclusively homosexual works of pornographic literature published in English. The book was first published in 1881 by William Lazenby, who printed 250 copies. A second edition was published by Leonard Smithers in 1902. It sold for an expensive four guineas.

Hirsch describes how Wilde brought the manuscript of Teleny to his bookshop in 1890 instructing that it be held until a friend, who would be carrying Wilde's card, came to retrieve it. "A few days later one of the young gentlemen I had seen with [Wilde] came to collect the package. He kept it for a while and then brought it back saying in turn: 'Would you kindly give this to one of our friends who will come to fetch it in the same person's name'". Hirsch recounts three further repetitions of this "identical ceremony" before the package made its way back to Wilde. Hirsch defied the strict instructions not to open the package while it was in his care, and claims that it was written in several different hands, which lends further support to his supposition that it was authored in "round robin" style by a small group of Wilde's intimate associates. [11] [12] [13]

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References

  1. ↑ Chris White, "Nineteenth-century writings on homosexuality: a sourcebook", CRC Press, 2002, ISBN   0-203-00240-7, p.285
  2. 1 2 Matt Cook, "London and the culture of homosexuality, 1885–1914", Cambridge studies in nineteenth-century literature and culture, Cambridge University Press, 2003 ISBN   0-521-82207-6, p.28
  3. ↑ Joseph Bristow, "Remapping the Sites of Modern Gay History: Legal Reform, Medico‐Legal Thought, Homosexual Scandal, Erotic Geography", Journal of British Studies 46 (January 2007) 116–142. doi : 10.1086/508401
  4. ↑ Michael Camille, Adrian Rifkin, "Other objects of desire: collectors and collecting queerly", Art History Special Issue, Wiley-Blackwell, 2001, ISBN   0-631-23361-X, p.87
  5. ↑ Olive Classe, "Encyclopedia of literary translation into English, Volume 1",Taylor & Francis, 2000, ISBN   1-884964-36-2, p.419
  6. ↑ Edouard Roditi, "Oscar Wilde", New Directions Publishing, 1986, ISBN   0-8112-0995-4, p.166
  7. ↑ Harford Montgomery Hyde, "The trials of Oscar Wilde", Courier Dover Publications, 1973, ISBN   0-486-20216-X, p.87
  8. ↑ Pamela K. Gilbert, "Imagined Londons", SUNY Press, 2002, ISBN   0-7914-5501-7, p.66
  9. ↑ Harford Montgomery Hyde, "The love that dared not speak its name: a candid history of homosexuality in Britain", Little, Brown, 1970, p.141
  10. ↑ Matt Cook, "A New City of Friends': London and Homosexuality in the 1890s", History Workshop Journal 56 (2003) 33–58. doi : 10.1093/hwj/56.1.33
  11. ↑ Nelson, James. Publisher to the Decadents: Leonard Smithers in the Careers of Beardsley, Wilde, Dowson. Philadelphia: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2000
  12. ↑ Robert Gray and Christopher Keep, "An Uninterrupted Current: Homoeroticism and collaborative authorship in Teleny", in Marjorie Stone, Judith Thompson (edd) "Literary Couplings: Writing Couples, Collaborators, and the Construction of Authorship", University of Wisconsin Press, 2007, ISBN   0-299-21764-7, p.193
  13. ↑ Edouard Roditi, "Oscar Wilde", New Directions Publishing, 1986, ISBN   0-8112-0995-4, p.168
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