Project Guterotica: Is PG Still PG ?

On his deathbed at age 94, George Bernard Shaw iced his place in history, with the "immortal" last words: "I knew if I hung around long enough, something like this was bound to happen."

The same thing might be said about Project Gutenberg (PG), a repository for free literature in the public domain, the venerable grandfather of the free ebook movement. This morning, on PG's list of newly added works, some books appeared that might be classified as that 19th-Century Viagra known as "Victorian erotica".

We have no objections, and we have one suggestion: Is it possible for Project Gutenberg to label this material as "Adult Content" ?

Diligent journalists as we are, we did manage to download some of these offerings, written by "Anonymous". One is titled Forbidden Fruit: Luscious and exciting story; and More forbidden fruit, or Master Percy's progress in and beyond the domestic circle. Two other titles that sounded suspiciously salacious are Laura Middleton; Her Brother and her Lover; and The Power of Mesmerism: A Highly Erotic Narrative of Voluptuous Facts and Fancies.

Put the kids to bed before downloading any one of these.

Project Gutenberg: let's get those "Adult Content" labels up, and keep them up.

I thought that with 50 I had discovered every possible benefit of ebooks, but for the 2010 edition, this could be one more.

Michael Pastore
50 Benefits of Ebooks