Sex Scandal

The Private Parts of Victorian Fiction
In narratives ranging from Eliot’s and Trollope’s novels about scandalous women to Oscar Wilde’s writing and his trials for homosexuality, this book shows how, in each instance, sexuality appears couched in coded terms. It is suitable to scholars and general readers interested in Victorian literature, the history of sexuality, and gender studies.
Never has the Victorian novel appeared so perverse as it does in these pages-and never his its perversity seemed so fundamental to its accomplishment. Whether discussing George Eliots lesbian readers, Anthony Trollopes whorish heroines, or Charles Dickenss masturbating characters, William A. Cohens study explodes the decorum of mainstream nineteenth-century fiction. By viewing this fiction alongside the most alarming public scandals of the day, Cohen exposes both the scandalousness of this literature and its sexiness.
Scandal, then as now, makes public