3 h 14 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 3 h 14 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
Behind Victorian London's public morality lies a hidden world of private appetite, paid encounters, and lives outside the law.
The Sins of the Cities of the Plain presents Jack Saul as a young man who sells sex in London. Set in the 1860s and 1870s, his recollections move from one encounter to another. His voice, rather than a single driving plot, connects these episodes in a city where male homosexual acts are illegal.
Published in 1881 under Saul's name, this erotic book offers a rare but slanted view of Victorian life. Scholars dispute how much is memoir, how much is invention, and whether other writers shape the account. That uncertainty matters: the book invites you to consider both hidden lives and how those lives are imagined and sold.
What you’ll discover
- A hidden Victorian London Look beyond public respectability into a city where private appetite meets the threat of law.
- A voice linking encounters Follow an episodic account held together by its narrator rather than a single goal.
- Memoir or invention Read with the question of authorship open, weighing personal recollection against possible invention.
- Sexuality and class Explore a text historians use to study male prostitution and class in Victorian England.
- A charged biblical echo Consider how the title's reference to Sodom and Gomorrah frames this account of hidden life.
Who will love it
This is for readers curious about Victorian London's hidden side, privately printed books, and the way scandal, class and rumour shaped what writers imagined about the city.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A customer pays for a life
- Childhood becomes an origin myth
- Respectable work leads to hidden patrons
- The club makes secrecy a system
- Real names lend stories borrowed authority
- Patrons pay to control the scene
- Criminal tales remain unverified claims
- Learned language lends a scholarly appearance
- Keep asking who pays and benefits
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The Sins of the Cities of the Plain
by Jack Saul · 1881
A stranger in Leicester Square pays a young man to write down his life in Victorian London's hidden world.
Medium levelUnder 2 hours to read16 languages
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In short
Picture a frosty November afternoon in Leicester Square. A well-off gentleman follows a smartly dressed young man down a side street, takes him by cab to rooms near Baker Street, and offers to pay him to write down his life.
The Sins of the Cities of the Plain at a glance
- Reading time
- About 1 h 50 min1 h 25 min fast, 2 h 10 min slow
- Length
- 26,100 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1881by Jack Saul
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A paid commission frames the whole memoir
The book opens with an introduction that tells you how to read it. The writer, who names himself Mr Cambon, walks through Leicester Square and notices a good-looking young man in tight clothes who seems to invite notice. Such youths, called Mary-Anns, stroll near Regent Street and the Haymarket on fine afternoons.
He invites the youth for wine, then takes him by cab to his chambers near Baker Street Station. The young man gives his name as Jack Saul. After dinner they strike a bargain. Saul will write out his history over several weeks, and the writer will pay him a fiver a week. Saul dislikes the title Recollections of a Mary-Ann, but the money wins him over.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 14 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1881
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 2 h 5 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Saul, Jack. The Sins of the Cities of the Plain. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-sins-of-the-cities-of-the-plain.
Saul, J. (2026). The sins of the Cities of the Plain. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-sins-of-the-cities-of-the-plain (Original work published 1881)
Saul, Jack. The Sins of the Cities of the Plain. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-sins-of-the-cities-of-the-plain.
@book{saul2026sins,
author = {Saul, Jack},
title = {The Sins of the Cities of the Plain},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-sins-of-the-cities-of-the-plain},
note = {First published 1881}
}
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What is The Sins of the Cities of the Plain about?
It is a Victorian erotic memoir in which a young man named Jack Saul recounts his life among clubs, soldiers, aristocrats and blackmailers in London. It closes with brief essays on sodomy and on love between women.
Who is Jack Saul in the book?
Jack Saul is the teller of the recollections, a young man who earns money from gentlemen in London and is called a Mary-Ann. A gentleman named Mr Cambon pays him to write down his story.
What does the title The Sins of the Cities of the Plain mean?
It points to Sodom and Gomorrah, the biblical cities of the plain, which Victorian writers used as a code for male same-sex love. The book plays on that label throughout, calling London a modern Babylon.
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