Sex Scenes

Abstract London, where Symonds lived during his soon abandoned legal career and to which he often had occasion to return, provided ample opportunities for sexual encounters. Four such episodes, recounted in the Memoirs, help us to map the topographies, both real and fantastical, across which Symonds pursued his desires; they also provide crucial evidence of the Victorian city’s sexual underground. It has become common to read these somewhat artful accounts, which often do not progress beyond preliminaries, as a reluctance by Symonds either to act at the time or to admit having done so in retrospect. But a closer look reveals instead a richly promiscuous understanding of what queer contact is and does.