A Note: Walter’s My Secret Life and Hulda Stockenius

My Secret Life is the sexual autobiography of an unknown Victorian, 'Walter', whose identity has been much discussed in the last half century. This multi-volume work contains descriptions of literally hundreds of couplings, most of which take place in Britain and many of which take place in London. Historians have long understood that this work is a potentially important source for Victorian England. But serious doubts remain about Walter's truthfulness in recounting episodes. There are two main reasons for these doubts. First, there has been the suggestion that Walter's descriptions lack verisimilitude in terms of the mechanics of sex: Walter, as it happens, seems, in some cases, to have been...