The Secret of Geraniums

… at eighteen nothing, nothing could satisfy her. She had not yet felt happiness well from her own heart, but had to seek it in vain everywhere, in the hot sun flashing over concrete, where it lived in deep pools of water in the woods, and existed in other people’s eyes. Her longing at eighteen knew no bounds; she was secretive and lonely, dark and insatiable.

Rebecca’s friendship with Alluvia grows into an intense sexual relationship—complicated by her secret affair with Francis, Alluvia’s husband. Rebecca’s desire for both members of the estranged couple leads to a surprising culmination she could never have imagined.

Jessy Reine’s THE SECRET OF GERANIUMS is  a haunting and poetic short novel— a raw exploration of female sexuality.

“… written with Nin-esque eloquence, electric and breathless, delineating a dreamy, moony, earthy connection between physical ritual and sex. This short novel/novella brims with evocative imagery and a raw complexity of emotions; as Rebecca maps out her corporeal and erotic existence, the languorous memories and present moments alike are intertangled and suffused with a mid-coital glow.” — Elna Holst, author of Lucas

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Jessy Reine was born on a dark and stormy dawn in November, 1986.She began writing stories at the age of seven. In 2014 she was awarded a grant from Arts by the People to create a small press with which she self-published and hand-bound 75 copies of a novella entitled, “Diary of the Seduced.” She has published short stories with Wilderness Literary Review, Blaze VOX, and the Quiet American, and was a finalist for the Tartt First Fiction Award in 2018. She has a BA in Narrative Fiction from Gallatin at NYU, as well as a Masters in Painting from the NY Academy of Art. She lives in a yurt in the Hudson Valley with her two children where she gardens by the moon and makes medicine from wild plants.

Happy Endings

 THIS TITLE IS OUT-OF-PRINT

ADVANCE PRAISE FOR THIS NEW URGE EDITION

“This witty and seductive translation will make libertines of us all. Connoisseurs of high-literary pornography will cherish Thérèse Finds Happiness.”
Catherine D’Avis, author of Angel of Everything

“…arouses the erogenous zones as well as one’s funny bone. Bravo Thérèse!”
Amandine Lévêque

“Potent and playful, Thérèse Finds Happiness offers up sexual ecstasy, libertine philosophy, and amusing satirical scenes. The translation adds a contemporary edge to the text, and the tale’s ‘happy ending’ is a tour de force.”
Lawrence Hamilton

Read NORMAN CONQUEST’S ARTICLE “Long Live Dirty Books!” on how this edition came about:  furtherdivertissements.com

In the Wings, Some Special Things For Spring & Beyond

from LE SCAT NOIR BEDSIDE NONSENSE

As we hunker down in our shelter here in Northern California, we remain busily preparing books to help you endure these terrible times. Alas, the crunch has hit everyone and small, independent bookstores  and presses are struggling to stay alive. Please consider ordering a title or two from our list  here. You can also donate to Black Scat via  this direct PayPal link  which will help us to keep bringing out titles such as the forthcoming works below. Thanks for your support.

“The only book in the English language to rival Tolstoy.”—George Steiner

We recently released two collections of provocative literary essays by British author John Cowper Powys: Powys on Books and Sensations  and Visions Visions Visions. This fall, we’re publishing  the first volume—(over 450 pages!)—of Powys’s extraordinary two-volume novel, Wolf Solent (1929). Eccentric and mystical, this  literary masterpiece was hailed by Henry Miller as “utterly bewitching.”  V. S. Pritchett called it “…a stupendous and rather glorious book… beautiful and strange as an electric storm.” Margaret Drabble said:“Powys’s work is full of paradoxes and surprises.” We’re proud to present this trio of titles in handsome uniform trade paper editions designed by artist Norman Conquest.

 

Nonsense in all its merry Infestations… from euphonic poesy to madcap cacophony

Coming in June, Le Scat Noir Bedside Nonsense is just what the doctor ordered for quarantined readers—a heady dose of innovative silliness and offbeat amusements. Edited by Norman Conquest, the anthology is #39 in our Absurdist Texts & Documents   series—packed with art & texts by Mark Axelrod, Tom Barrett, Ken Brown, Caroline Crépiat, Haley Dahl, Ryan Forsythe, Paul Forristal, Penelope Goddard, Simon Hanes, Rhys Hughes, Alexei Kalinchuk, KKUURRTT, Rick Krieger, David Moscovich, Jason E. Rolfe, Paul Rosheim,  Thaddeus Rutkowski, Terry Southern, Yuriy TarnawskyTom Whalen, Carla M. Wilson, and other characters.

A CLASSIC OF EROTIC LITERATURE IN A SPANKING NEW TRANSLATION

Thérèse Finds Happiness by the Marquis d’Argens is the 18th century  precursor  to  the 1967 French novel Emmanuelle. This libertine classic’s potent erotic episodes are interspersed with discourses on a philosophy of pleasure contrasted with  pervasive religious hypocrisy. The novel is noteworthy for its antipathy to the sexual repression of women during “The Age of Enlightenment.” It also happens to be extraordinarily humorous.

Richard Robinson has produced an exquisite new translation of Thérèse philosophe for the  contemporary reader. Thérèse Finds Happiness will be available later this year under our New Urge imprint. 

Also forthcoming from New Urge Editions:  contemporary novels by Jessy Reine and Tom Bussmann. Watch this space for other surprises.

from LE SCAT NOIR BEDSIDE NONSENSE

FEMME WITH FANGS

Sometimes after an hour of apathy, my strange and beautiful companion would take my hand and hold it with a fond pressure, renewed again and again; blushing softly, gazing in my face with languid and burning eyes, and breathing so fast that her dress rose and fell with the tumultuous respiration. It was like the ardour of a lover; it embarrassed me; it was hateful and yet overpowering; and with gloating eyes she drew me to her, and her hot lips travelled along my cheek in kisses; and she would whisper, almost in sobs, “You are mine, you shall be mine, and you and I are one for ever.”

This classic Gothic horror novel preceded Bram Stoker’s Dracula by 25 years and was its inspiration. Carmilla is the first vampire story to feature a lesbian vampire. “Chilling and subtly erotic.”

 

CARMILLA
by Joseph Le Fanu
New Urge Editions (NU-119)
paperback, 180 pp., $12.95

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RISE & SHINE

There is a veritable army of zombie books out there but nothing remotely like this one. This obscure novel—a masterpiece of avant-garde weirdness—was published in France in 1697. It was written by one Pierre-Corneille Blessebois, “the Casanova of the 17th century,” as an act of literary revenge. It is not simply vengeful, but it’s the first work in world literature to use the word “zombie” and stands as an early example of bizarre black humor. This outrageous relic—unearthed & translated from the French by the incomparable Doug Skinner—is the novel’s first appearance in English and features a preface by the great Guillaume Apollinaire.

_____________________Z-DAY___________________________

The Zombie of Great Peru has risen from the grave—unleashed worldwide by Black Scat in an appropriately fetid trade paperback edition, with sublime cover art and design by Norman Conquest.

Lock your doors and windows. Better yet, order it now before it’s too late!

NU-amazon

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THE ZOMBIE OF GREAT PERU
Pierre-Corneille Blessebois
with a preface by Guillaume Apollinaire
translated from the French by Doug Skinner

$10.95
Paperback: 146 pages
ISBN-13: 978-0692409749

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START THE YEAR OFF NAUGHTY

Ring in the New Year with hot titles from our New Urge imprint: The New Urge Reader Omnibus — an international anthology —  three volumes in one — featuring 32 extraordinary women writers and their most intimate stories. Collector’s edition.

Contributors: Jessica Alexander, Tamara Faith Berger, Elizabeth Bolton, Emily June Brink, Suzanne Burns, Tina V. Cabrera, Catherine D’Avis, Emma Gibb, Petra Anne Hawk, Elna Holst, Eurydice Kamvyselli, Rachel Kendall, Marina Kris, Cody Kmoch, Lily Knol, Marina Kris, Mandy Lee, Karen Moller, Pamela Naruta, L T O’Rourke, Erin Pim, Val Prozorova, Marina Rubin, Maria Schurr, Aurora Seymour, Sophia Smith, Star Spider, Amy Summers, Tara Stillions Whitehead, L C Wilkinson, Rebecca Woolston, Elizabeth Yoo.

NEW URGE READER OMNIBUS:
Erotic Fiction by New Women Writers

Various
New Urge Editions (NU-118)
Three Volumes in One
350 pp., trade paper, $16.95

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A Night in a Moorish Harem —  a classic Victorian erotic novel, banned and reviled in its day, and now considered one of the most stylish and seductive works of erotic fiction ever published.

A NIGHT IN A MOORISH HAREM
Anonymous
New Urge Editions (NU-117)
190 pp., trade paper, $12.95

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“Singular in its dialectic between looking and being looked at, and in its urgency about sexual release, the novel retains a rare claustrophobia of sexual obsession…”  —Eurydice

THE OBSERVATORY
Petra Anne Hawk
New Urge Editions (NU-114)
194 pp., trade paper, $12.95

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We trust this trio will keep you warm until spring.

Happy New Year!

In the wings…some peculiar things

Watch for this extraordinary collection of works by the great Stefan Themerson who, with his wife, the artist Franciszka, founded the legendary Gaberbocchus Press  (London, 1948-1979). A poet, publisher, novelist, filmmaker, composer and philosopher, Stefan Themerson was a giant force in the avant-garde of the 20th century. A magus, a magician, his books are filled with wisdom, absurd humor, and dazzling ideas. His  unique vision is more relevant today than ever, and thanks to Paul Rosheim, Black Scat will be bringing you Critics and My Talking Dog: Selected Stories, Essays, Lectures & a Play.   

As the force behind Obscure Publications, Rosheim (with the guidance of British art critic, and founder of the Themerson Archive Jasia Reichardt) published a number of  limited edition chapbooks by Themerson. He is busy  compiling this seminal introduction to Stefan’s texts. The book will also  feature an introduction by noted art historian and artist Nick Wadley.

 



By the author of The Book with the Green Cover, smells like teen ‘pataphysics features signs of the phenomenon, oscillating pyramids, and  luminous vapors. This unexpurgated edition is illustrated with ubu-dystopian charts,  unpublished diagrams, newly discovered schemata, and rare illuminated photographs.  Also included  are Norman Conquest‘s groundbreaking philosophical experiments—triumphs as well as failures— which will inspire  aspiring  illuminati here and abroad.

 

She’s baaaacccck….

The  perfect  treat for Halloween.

FIRST PUBLICATION IN ENGLISH!

A zombie rises from the grave of French literature to stalk the earth once more! This bizarre novel – written in 1697 – marks the first mention of the word “zombie” in world literature. It is a wicked tale of lascivious lust and lunatic desires, a strange concoction of prose and verse, set in the sexual and racial hothouse of colonial Guadeloupe. Our narrator has his eye on the beautiful Creole Countess, who goes barefoot and serves her guests tadpoles. When she offers him sex in exchange for magical powers, he tricks her into thinking she’s an invisible zombie; slapstick, humiliation, and confusion follow. Includes a preface by the avant-garde magus: Guillaume Apollinaire.

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