Category: translation

DO THE MATH

FIRST ENGLISH TRANSLATION

The incomparable humorist is in his prime here, spinning out dark fantasies on cycling in Ancient Rome, the taste of tears, the economic advantages of germ warfare, God’s dislike of Christmas, and the proper chemicals for a chaperone’s chamberpot. The intrepid Captain Cap pitches his bizarre inventions over cocktails, and Allais sends back notes from his travels to North America and Southern France. At 65 stories, this collection is Allais’s largest—PLUS two extra stories by Allais and two by Octave Mirbeau, on the pressing issue of ambulatory vegetables.

We’re tickled and thrilled to bring you the 12th title in our Alphonse Allais Collection: 2 + 2 = 5 —translated, with an introduction and notes on the text, by the absurdly gifted Doug Skinner.

Alphonse is in his prime here, spinning out dark fantasies on cycling in Ancient Rome, the taste of tears, the economic advantages of germ warfare, God’s dislike of Christmas, and the proper chemicals for a chaperone’s chamberpot. The intrepid Captain Cap pitches his bizarre inventions over cocktails, and Allais sends back notes from his travels to North America and Southern France. At 65 stories, this collection is the humorist’s largest—PLUS two extra stories by Allais and two by Octave Mirbeau, on the pressing issue of ambulatory vegetables. What does it all add up to? . . . Hilarity!

2 + 2 = 5
Alphonse Allais
Translated from the French by Doug Skinner
Original cover painting by Lilianne Milgrom
Trade paperback; 289 pp., $14.95

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About the Author
ALPHONSE ALLAIS (1854-1905) was a peerless French humorist, celebrated posthumously by the Surrealists for his elegant style and disturbing imagination. In addition to composing absurdist texts for newspapers such as Le Chat Noir and Le Journal, he experimented with holorhymes, invented conceptual art, and created the earliest known example of a silent musical composition: Funeral March for the Obsequies of a Deaf Man (1884). Truly ahead of his time (as well as our own), Allais is needed now more than ever. His mischievous work remains fresh, funny, and always surprising.

Other books by Allais you’ll enjoy. . .

ARMCHAIR TRAVEL

“You must travel… I can’t travel… I’ll travel”

We are all armchair travelers now. The question is: Where do we go?

If you’re looking for answers, let 28 imaginative writers & artists from around the globe take you places you’ve never been. Find your getaway in BLACK SCAT REVIEW 21 — The Travel Issue.

FEATURING: Alphonse Allais, Robert James Cross, Farewell Debut, S. C. Delaney, John Oliver Hodges, Rhys Hughes, Harold Jaffe, E.E. King, Olchar E. Lindsann, Charles J. March III, Carmelo Militano, Opal Louis Nations, Peter Payack, Persefone, Roger Pheuquewell, Agnès Potier, Collin J. Rae, Jason E. Rolfe, Paul Rosheim, Charles de Rosières, Doug Skinner, Kristine Snodgrass, Ben Stoltzfus, Corinne Taunay, Ed Taylor, Michel Vachey, Tom Whalen, D. Harlan Wilson.

Read My Lips . . .

Lawrence Hamilton has selected spicy excerpts from an anonymous English translation of Denis Diderot‘s satiric libertine novel, Les Bijoux Indiscrets (The Indiscreet Toys, 1749). Our edition, titled  From Their Lips to His Ear, is # 6 in the Pocket Erotica series— little,  4 x 6-inch editions, lovingly designed for collectors, yet priced inexpensively.

Denis Diderot was a highly celebrated 18th century French  philosopher & editor of the groundbreaking Encyclopédie. In 1748, in need of  money, he wrote this scandalous and amusing libertine allegory whose hero, a sultan, is in possession of a magic ring. When aimed at female genitals, the ring prompts these private parts to speak — revealing a woman’s deepest sexual desires, experiences, and indiscretions. In this precursor to The Vagina Monologues, the women  are portrayed  as  powerful beings through their liberated  ideas and sexuality.

“…filled with the strings of sexual metaphors (both explicit and concealing) … a linguistic tour de force, a rhetorical experiment in verbalizing the obscene, and a representational puzzle, signaled by that deliberate act of veiling and unveiling.”

FROM THEIR LIPS TO HIS EAR
Denis Diderot
Pocket Erotica No. 6
71 pp., perfect-bound; $10
ISBN 978-1-7356159-1-2

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Hogarth’s Cottage

 “…what makes an artist great is having the courage to provoke and challenge.” —The New York Times

 

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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

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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
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CRUEL DESIRES

“This modern classic deserves to be ranked alongside the great French erotic masterpieces,  Story of O  and  The Image, and very few others. Not for the faint-hearted or the narrow-minded, this story of love, excess, degradation, cruelty, tenderness and beauty is for all women whose fantasies and desires embrace the intensely erotic.”                                                                                                   —Dawn Avril Fitzroy

In the tradition of Decadent literature, spiced with Gothic, this provocative contemporary novel takes the reader on a voyage through dream, reverie, fantasy, memory and imagination – recounting the raptures and tortures in the initiation of a young woman, Gabrielle, by the Vicomtesse, the Comte and their entourage in The Domain.

THE RITES OF ECSTASY
Hélène Lavelle
Translated from the French by Valéry Soers
New Urge Editions
Trade paperback original; 240 pp., $14.95
ISBN: 978-1-7356159-0-5

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LOVE AMONG THE LIBERTINES

A COMING OF AGE. An arousing translation by Richard Robinson of a French libertine classic —naughty, romantic, edgy — a tale that digs below the naves of the 18th century “amphibious” world of sex and religion. Its hero, a young abbot, hones his secular skills and steals the “laurels” of sexual triumph from his choir of well-bred female trophies. A Coming of Age, originally La Morlière’s Ecclesiastical Laurels, unveils upper-society sexual shenanigans from out of the chapel and into the holy sanctuary of licentiousness and love.

This is No. 2 in the Pocket Erotica series from New Urge—compact (4 x 6-inch) perfect-bound  booklets that fit in your pocket or purse.

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POCKET EROTICA BLASTS OFF!

We kick off July with the launch of this exciting  and collectible new series from our New Urge imprint: Pocket Erotica—featuring original translations  of classic and obscure works of erotic literature. Each volume is a compact 4 x 6-inch paperback  with  a distinctive uniform design.

Pocket Erotica No. 1 is now available worldwide on Amazon:  DON’T TOUCH by Anne-Gabriel Meusnier de Querlon, translated from the French by Richard Robinson. A fun, lively, contemporary translation of an 18th century French libertine novella with a narrative technique that drops the soutanes, lifts the wimples, and pushes the boundaries of the novel – 150 years ahead of its time. Erotic, sacrilegious, funny and infectious, it is the “amorous true story,” as told by herself, Saint Nitouche, a Carmelite Extern Nun, whose “taste for pleasure and vocation for retreat” bump up against each other in surprisingly modern and eternally scandalous ways in the convent and in the bawdy house. Still scandalous today,  it is like Thérèse Finds Happiness, but without the philosophy.

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An arousing translation of a French libertine tale —naughty, romantic, edgy —that digs below the naves of the 18th century “amphibious” world of sex and religion. Its hero, a young abbot, hones his secular skills and steals the “laurels” of sexual triumph from among his choir of well-bred female trophies. A Coming of Age, originally La Morlière’s Ecclesiastical Laurels, unveils upper-society sexual shenanigans from out of the chapel and into the holy sanctuary of licentiousness and true love.

… desperate not to lose so beautiful a moment of passion, I was already employing the baluster in a way that was, perhaps, unknown to bishops and prelates; she was following along with my reasoning, I was about to give her a taste of its energy; &, in spite of the uncomfortableness of the position, I put forward the DEFINITIVE ARGUMENT: she was not without some distrust in its success, but I was going to destroy her disbelief. Already we were united to the extent of being one, alreadyI was insinuating myself adroitly into her… heart;… I had her half-way… persuaded, when the accursed chambermaid whom we certainly were not expecting, entered brusquely & surprised us; the marchioness was in a bit of a dubious position, & I was deploying my brilliant… state, covered in… glory; in such a state that, in a word, of all my honest readers and critics together, three quarters of them will be more envious of me than imitators….

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