Index of Forbidden Books by Henry Spencer Ashbee

Sphere Books 
1969 
Paperback 
First Sphere Books Edition 
432 Pages
11 x 18cm 

Condition: Fair

Under the pseudonym Pisanus Fraxi, Ashbee catalogued the shadowy underworld of erotic literature in Victorian Britain. He was an avid book collector, with perhaps the world's most extensive collections of Cervantes and erotica, also amassing thousands of volumes of pornography in several languages. Ashbee's will left his entire collection to the British Museum, with the condition that the erotic works had to be accepted along with the conventional items. Index of Forbidden Books is a bold, fascinating glimpse into the titles that outraged censors but fuelled private desires.