The Black Pearl: Gerald and Michaela Suster and the Horby Dynasty

Recently acquired the final volume of the Black Pearl series, Black Pearl: v. 4: The Memoirs of a Victorian Sex Magician, commonly held to be the work of Gerald and Michaela Suster.

This contains no less than forty pages of pseudo-academic supporting material, comprising a publisher's foreword, together with author's and editor's prefaces to all four volumes. These last are presented as by Horby, the eponymous sex magician and 'Gerdaldine Lamb PhD' respectively. A cynic might view this as a bravura piece of padding, but it's all part of the game and provides a useful guide to the by-now much entangled plot.

On top of all this there is also a short publisher's note, which cites a number of apparently related works "purporting to be by members of the Horby dynasty":

Unholy Passions, Anonymous
Gothic Passions, Anonymous, introduction by 'Gina Cravesit phD of the University of Cambridge'
Wolverines by Alan Dale
Sexploited by Alan Dale

These seem to make up a linked series of historical erotic romps along the same lines as Aisling Morgan's Truscott saga. I've read at least a couple of these titles, and had noted the recurrence of the name, but this tends to confirm joint authorship.

Perhaps most in intriguingly of all, the note indicates that 'Ackney 'Orby, a scion of the Horby family is mentioned in the introduction to Secret Sutras (allegedly) by Sir Richard Burton and purporting to be the legendary lost erotic diaries of that gentleman. In common with the introductions to many of the above works, this last is attributed, in a final pseudonymous flourish, to 'Dr Marcus Ardonne'.

I suggest that Mandeville Hardaway should get in touch with Marcus Ardonne (and indeed also his brother Ivan), if she can prise them away from Gina Cravesit.

I suggest that there's a breed of office junior who work at erotic publishers and occasionally get bored endlessly typing 'Anonymous'!

I've read Unholy Passions and Wolverines, and, as I recall, neither seemed up to the standard of the Black Pearl series, though both full of unexpected and recondite historical detail.

I'm curious about Secret Sutras. A Suster version of Burton's diaries could be highly entertaining. However, Arena of Lust is also mentioned as having a Ardonne introduction with a Horby reference, and that certainly isn't by the Susters.

Over to me, it seems. It's been years since I read The Secret Sutras, but as I recall it it shares the historical detail of the Black Pearl books. A xxvi page Editor's Introduction details the improbable 1996 sexual shenanigans by which Dr. Ardonne and Horby make off with a volume of the papers Isabella was believed to have burned - from "St. Sappho' College", Cambridge. This material is hidden in "The Thoughts and Sermons on Aspects of Divine Revelation" by The Very Reverend Theophilus Hogweed, DD.

Not quite Burton's voice, but entertaining. (Also, Burton would probably had included foot notes ...)

Oh, and it is from the same publisher as my edition of The Black Pearl.

Many thanks for confirming, Speedicut! Another one for the wants list. Much appreciated.

I'm wondering if there isn't some confusion of titles around Arena of Lust. The book cited in Editor's Note to Black Pearl 4 is attributed to Sextus Propertius (a real figure). According to a review on Amazon this concerns Roman scandals, and sounds very much in the Suster style.

The only 'Arena of Lust' of which I am aware is by Akbar del Piombo (Norman Rossington, I think) and is identical to that author's 'Skirts'. Mine is the only LT review, I think. That highlighted by LordBangholm leads to this.

Akbar del Piombo, whose pinnacle of achievement (IMHO) was 'Cosimo's Wife', used a style that is rather surrea, and his works are end-to-end erotic. This, and the fact that it is much more recent than 'Black Pearl' would suggest, the 'Black Pearl' reference clearly relates to the NEL edition listed (in English AND German) by Amazon UK. The single Amazon review (three stars) is hardly complimentary to its erotic nature.

Finishing off Secret Sutras. The framing narrative, featuring Dr Ardone, is an academic farce in the style of Tom Sharpe, and refers to previous events around a priceless latin manuscript that is clearly the other Arena of Lust, by the Susters. I'll pick that up in due course. I can't think why such an odd title would come up twice, and can only wonder if Gerald Suster, as a classicist and martial arts buff, was disappointed by the lack of real gladiatorial action in Akbar Del Piombo's book.

The amazon review Clifford cites accurately describes the formula of the Suster's anonymous output, though I personally relish the hearty, jolly-rogering approach to the sexual episodes, and the way that these are regularly alternated with anecdotes and nuggets of information drawn from Suster's obscure and far-flung scholarship. For me, it's all part of the eccentric charm of these books.