One of the most prevalent themes in porn these days is the idea of the “neglected housewife,” who hasn’t seen or been attended to by her husband in ages. She’s lonely, sad, and most of all, horny enough that a random untested and potentially homicidal plumber at the door is enough to rile up her sexual appetite and then POOF they’re doing it on her kitchen table (but he’s still wearing his tool, belt, obviously).

Did you think this was a relatively new idea? Perhaps in the last few decades, when men began working obscenely long hours and spending long stretches away on business? Not the case, according to a new book called Mrs. Robinson’s Disgrace, by author Kate Summerscale. It details the public (and very private) life of Isabella Robinson, a woman of the Victorian Era whose husband’s business kept him away from home for long periods of time (although when he was home, he was a “rotten husband” anyway). While on her deathbed, Summerscale writes, Isabella’s husband uncovered her diary, which detailed her dreams, fantasies, and possibly real encounters with other men. A doctor nearby, for example, became more than just a friend after Isabella lusted after him. Via TheDaily Mail:

‘I made no opposition,’ she brazenly admitted, ‘for had I not dreamed of him and of this full many a time before? What followed I hardly remember — passionate kisses, whispered words, confessions of the past.
‘Oh, God! I had never hoped to see this hour, or to have my part of love returned. But so it was.’
There was more to come. Back at the house, they slipped away from his wife after tea and renewed their ‘passionate excitement’ in his study.
‘Bliss,’ she recorded — a word that would later come under microscopic examination for its precise meaning — ‘predominated’.
Whatever they were up to, they were at it again the next day. Another country walk a deux ended with them resting ‘among the dry fern’ and Isabella’s coy but highly suggestive entry in her diary: ‘I shall not state what followed.’
Then, alone in the back of a carriage for an hour as he accompanied her to the railway station at the end of her stay, there was more intriguing ‘bliss’ — ‘such that I could willingly have died not to wake out of it again’.

PHEW! I mean, sure, it’s no Bang Brothers clip and there’s no 18 year old screaming “f*** me” over and over, but you’ve got to admit, it still has a lot of the same aspects of many adult films today: various locations, unbridled lust, a housewife who hasn’t gotten some in a long, long time.

Horny housewives: gettin’ some elsewhere since 1837.