When the retired widower of 50, Mr Bonham, espies the young and nubile shop-girl and farmer's daughter, Rosa, he immediately proposes to establish her in the best of finishing schools in London with the intention of making her his wife in 12 months. And should the lustful gentleman take liberties with the sweet and innocent girl prior to their marriage then so be it.
Fearing that her father will make a fool of himself, and fearing even more the future state of her sizable inheritance as a result, Eliza Bonham concocts a plan to reveal Rosa to be the wantonly money-grabbing whore that one of her low standing are naturally predisposed to being.
With the help of the rakish, roguish, and betrothed, Captain Alfred Torrant, Eliza puts him to task in taking any necessary measures to ensure Rosa's reputation is tarnished or her body spoiled with illegitimate child before her wedding day.
What follows is a dangerous liaison par excellence, revealing all the debaucheries of the day performed by the lowly classes and the upper echelons of Victorian England, from anally naive farm girls to lascivious lords and ladies, slandered ministers and grateful prostitutes.
Will Rosa stay her course or will she succumb to the vices of those intent on her downfall?
This wickedly entertaining work of Victorian Erotica is a prime example of its time, written anonymously in 1867 and originally published by the notorious William Dugdale in the same year, The Victim of Lust, or, Scenes in the Life of Rosa Fielding, will be sure to delight and titillate fans of the genre in equal measure.
