Category: SEX

ALL IN THE FAMILY . . .

“Louÿs’s jolly saga of sexual insatiability…is one of the handful of erotic works that achieve true literary status.”
— Susan Sontag

“Among all Pierre Louÿs’s books, this is undoubtedly my favourite, the most moving, most uplifting and sometimes the most terrifying, the purest, the least artificial and the most modern. A masterpiece.”
—André Pieyre de Mandiargues

“One of the most moving books ever written on the fatality of desires.” —Annie Le Brun

“Amazing! It’s pornographic, but high quality!” — Jean d’Ormesson

“Here is, without question, is Pierre Louÿs’ erotic masterpiece. The strength of the novel does not come from its eventual biographical value, but from the constant transgression that manifests itself within it—containing all the erotic themes dear to the writer, elevated to a singular power. We also find here the key qualities of Louÿs’ style: the liveliness of the dialogues, the precision of the language, the irony, the relentlessness with which certain obscene words are constantly repeated. This scandalous book constitutes a total profanation and derision of this bourgeois universe to which the author belonged.”
—Jean-Paul Goujon

A young man receives an advanced education in the permutations of sex from a mother and her three—surprisingly well-educated—daughters. Part memoir, part confession, Her Three Daughters is Pierre Louÿs at his outrageously erotic best.

HER THREE DAUGHTERS
Pierre Louÿs
Translated from the French by R J Dent
New Urge Editions
paperback; 340 pp.; $15

Other New Urge titles by Pierre Louÿs

Our Top Ten Scatsellers

We don’t like to play favorites and with a list of some 200 titles we can’t. But we thought you might like to know which titles have been the most popular. So here is a list of our Top Ten. All are in print, so if you missed one just click on its cover.

10 Oulipo Pornobongo (2016)

9 Le Scat Noir Encyclopedie et Dictionaire (2020)

8 Captain Cap, Alphonse Allais (2013)

7 Le Scat Noir Encyclopedia (2017)

6 Critics & My Talking Dog, Stefan Themerson (2019)

5 The Pope’s Mustard-Maker, Alfred Jarry (2019)

4 The Straw That Broke, Tom Whalen (2014)

3 The Zombie of Great Peru, P-C Blessebois (2015)

2 The Squadron’s Umbrella, Alphonse Allais (2015)

1 Here Lies Memory, Doug Rice (2016)

JUST IN TIME FOR SUMMER…

photograph: T. Motley

The lovely “Lewd, Nude & Rude” issue of BLACK SCAT REVIEW has stormed the beach!

As you’ve come to expect, the issue is filled with Sublime Art & Literature — innovative fiction, eye-popping graphics, works in translation, and spicy absurdities. Featuring 131 pages packed with an international cast of contributors: Mark Axelrod; Thomas Barrett; Sebastian Bennett; Giacomo Girolamo Casanova; Norman Conquest; R J Dent; Dawn Avril Fitzroy; Eckhard Gerdes; Alexander Krivitskiy; Amy Kurman; Hélène Lavelle; Marc Levy; Olchar E. Lindsann; Clément Marot; Lilianne Milgrom; Alison Miller; T. Motley; Angelo Pastormerlo; Gerard Sarnat; Doug Skinner; Valéry Soers; Jean Donneau de Visé; Gregory Wallace; Tom Whalen; and David Williams.

Have a bang-up Memorial Day!

MIND YOUR MANNERS

Pierre Louÿs wrote this scandalous and salacious satirical work in 1917, yet it wasn’t published until 1926, after his death. Originally titled Manuel de civilité pour les petites filles à l’usage des maisons d’éducation, it was the author’s first published erotic work—issued anonymously in Paris, with no date nor publisher’s imprint.

A Handbook of Manners for the Good Girls of France parodies the educational handbooks of the day, as well as popular guides to etiquette. But unlike the author’s elegantly sensual ouvre, including Les Chansons de Bilitis and Aphrodite: mœurs antiques, this is Louÿs’ most radical and subversive book — aimed directly at middle-class puritanism, mocking the hypocrisy and complacency of the Belle Époque. It attacks religion and social norms with equal vigor— a sharp slap in the face of censors and prudes.

It’s also very funny.

A HANDBOOK OF MANNERS FOR THE GOOD GIRLS OF FRANCE
Pierre Louÿs
Translated from the French by Lono Taggers
Paperback; 70 pp., illustrated; $12
Pocket Erotica #23 / New Urge
ISBN 13 978-1-7379430-6-8

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Pierre Louÿs, poet and novelist, was born in Belgium but spent his life in France. He is best known for his erotic works, many with sapphic and classical themes. His most popular titles include Aphrodite: mœurs antiques; Trois Filles de leur mère; Le Trophée de vulves légendaires; Poésies érotiques; La Femme et le pantin; and Les Chansons de Bilitis. His contributions to French erotic literature remain unequaled.

SADE STRIKES AGAIN!

The merry Marquis de Sade is back with another witty chapbook in our Pocket Erotica series. The Self-Made Cuckold, translated from the French by RJ Dent, follows in the footsteps of the author’s Retaliation (Pocket Erotica #17), a similarly rare work sans the notorious content he is known for. Indeed, both titles contain no savage orgies nor flagellation. These little gems are —by comparison to The 120 Days of Sodom—libertine light and amusingly smutty. There are also strains of feminism running through both books.

For those who have never encountered de Sade, it should be pointed out that he was a gifted stylist whose sentences were exquisitely crafted. Here is how The Self-Made Cuckold begins:

One of the greatest deficiencies of ill-bred people is that they constantly utter a host of indiscretion, slanders or defamations on everyone that breathes, very often in the presence of people they do not really know. One cannot imagine the number of problems that this sort of idle chatter causes: what honest man can stand by and hear evil spoken about someone he cares for without reprimanding the fool who said it?

Indeed, who could ignore such an indignity, but that’s beside the point. The purpose of the quotation is to offer you an
hors d’oeuvre, the lilt and flow of the text.

We trust you’ll enjoy this humorous little feast.

The Self-Made Cuckold
Marquis de Sade
Translated by RJ Dent
Pocket Erotica No. 20
Paper; 60 pp., $10
ISBN 978-1737371199

A TREAT FOR HALLOWEEN

There is a veritable army of zombie books out there but nothing remotely like this one. This obscure novel — THE ZOMBIE OF GREAT PERU — is a masterpiece of avant-garde weirdness — 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.

 

LOOK OUT MAMA, IT’S DEBAUCH-O-RAMA!

“A harsh, hilarious, scurrilous, and scatological satire.”
—Ed Simon, JSTOR Daily

Poet John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester, was considered one of the greatest English satirists — a nimble wit and scribbler of sublime wordplay, parodies & pornographic puns.

Hailed by Graham Greene and Ezra Pound, Wilmot is perhaps best known for his outrageous libertine satires, including this wickedly funny Restoration drama.

Originally titled The Farce of Sodom, or the Quintessence of Debauchery, DEBAUCH-O-RAMA is an absurdist “closet drama” – written to be read aloud and not performed.  It consists of five acts in raunchy rhyming couplets and a madcap cast of characters:

CAST

  • Bolloxinion – King of Sodom
  • Cuntigratia – his Queen
  • Pricket – young Prince
  • Swivia – Princess
  • Buggeranthos – General of the Army
  • Pockenello – Prince and favourite of the King
  • Borastus – Buggermaster-General
  • Pene & Tooly – Pimps of Honour
  • Officina – Maid of Honour
  • Fuckadilla – Maid of Honour
  • Cunticulla – Maid of Honour
  • Clytoris – Maid of Honour
  • Flux – Physician to the King
  • Vertuso – Dildo- and Merkin-Maker for the Court

Let the curtain rise and the laughter begin!

DEBAUCH-O-RAMA
A Restoration Closet Drama
by John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester
Pocket Erotica  [№ 11 ]
65 pp.; paper, perfect bound; 4 x 6 inches; $10
ISBN 978-1-7357646-2-7

PAUL VERLAINE — 2 BOOKS-IN-ONE

Two complete works in one volume by the French “Prince of Poets,” Paul Verlaine. This is the first contemporary English translation, and includes illustrations by Paul-Émile Bécat.

“The two books of poetry translated and presented here are complete, just as Verlaine wrote them – sustained efforts holding to a theme, the same theme: the love between a man and a woman. But it’s not just any love, it’s physical love, as well as emotional love. They are songs lauding sex between a man and a woman. They are refreshingly honest and very modern. Chansons pour elle (Songs for Her) was published in 1891. Odes en son honneur (Odes in Her Honor), in 1893. ” — from the introduction by Richard Robinson.

Songs for Her and Odes in Her Honor
Paul Verlaine
With illustrations by Paul-Émile Bécat
Translated from the French by Richard Robinson
Pocket Erotica [№ 9 ]
paper; 88 pp., $10
ISBN: 978-1-7356159-9-8

SOLD OUT

HIGHER EDUCATION

It’s back to school with #7 in our Pocket Erotica series…another extended excerpt (over 170 pages!) from Nicolas Chorier‘s libertine novel, L’Academie des dames, translated from the French by Amandine Lévêque. This sublime edition includes the continuing dialogue between Tullie and her innocent cousin, Octavie, whom she has been charged with initiating into the world of sexual pleasure. It seems Octavie has more to learn about the Facts of Life, and Tullie is a most inspiring teacher. “Think about this, my dear Octavie: that if you want to live happily & content in the state of marriage, as you currently do, you must believe that there is nothing that is not permitted, & that all things are forbidden.”

 

 

Further Studies: The School of Women
Nicolas Chorier
Translated from the French by Amandine Lévêque
Pocket Erotica  [№ 7 ];  $12
ISBN: 978-1-7356159-7-4
SOLD OUT

 

Journey to Parts Unknown

“…her valleys are like Eden, her hills like Lebanon, her springs as Pisgah, and her rivers as Jordan; that she is a paradise of pleasure and garden of delight.”

This satirical travelogue was first published in England 1740. With Swiftian wit, it describes the female sexual anatomy as a metaphor of geography and natural history. This lovely guidebook is a must-have for the armchair adventurer, as well as timid explorers who dream of female parts unknown. Students of natural history and budding geographers will discover many hidden delights within these pages.

***This edition also includes a never-before-published map of the country***

“The Arabian Geographical Lexicographer cited by Schultens in his book observes that the exact limits of the  vast country of Merryland are en­tirely unknown, the greatest traveller never having been able to discover its utmost bounds; and whoever attempts such a discov­ery, may properly be said to grope in the dark.”

Collectors of RARE curiosa and exotic erotica rejoice! — your destination has arrived!

“…a masterpiece of wit and humour!”

TRAVELS TO MERRYLAND
Containing a Topographical, Geographical & Natural History of that Country
by Roger Pheuquewell, Esq.
Pocket Erotica  [№ 10 ]
76 pp., paper; illustrated; $10
ISBN: 978-1-7357646-4-1