Forbidden Books of the Victorians : Henry Spencer Ashbee's Bibliographies of Erotica abridged and edited, with an introduction and Notes, by Peter Fryer

Odyssey Press, London, first edition, 1970. Cloth, 8vo, 24 cm,. [4], 239 pp. From the blurb: "For far too many years the three volume, descriptive bibliography of erotic and pornographic literature by Henry Spencer Ashbee has remained, because of its rarity, length and price, out of reach of precisely those readers and collectors for whom it must be an indispensable work of reference and amusement. This single volume edition of Ashbee omits only those titles in Latin, Spanish and German - together with a few in other languages - which can nowadays be considered for all common purposes as of little remaining interest. It retains the entire corpus of the most interesting and rare of the Victorian contributions to erotic literature, together with Ashbee's descriptions of earlier books and other curiosa, such as his detailed descriptions of Rowlandson's obscene prints. For the sake of bookmen, moreover, there is a check-list of all the titles originally included by Ashbee, indicating those of which his descriptions have been omitted, together with a full index. Peter Fryer's Introduction forms a detailed and scholarly conspectus not only of Ashbee's work, but of others for which he is little known. He produces, for the first time, a bibliography of all Ashbee's writings, together with all known facts on his life and his Will. Bookplate and name and date on front pastedown endpaper, otherwise Very Good.in used, price-clipped and slightly torn dustwrapper.