July 4th marks our 9th year of publishing. To celebrate the occasion we’ve released a special deluxe hardcover edition of our very first title, ALPHONSE ALLAIS’S MASKS — adapted and illustrated by Norman Conquest, with an introduction and notes on the text by Allaisian scholar Doug Skinner.
This revised, expanded edition features three additional chapters and over 60 color illustrations.
Join the celebration and order your copy of this collectable edition here.
ALPHONSE ALLAIS’S MASKS Adapted & Illustrated by Norman Conquest With a Introduction & Notes on the Text by Doug Skinner DELUXE SPECIAL EDITION hardcover; 6×9 inches; 82 pp., illustrated ISBN 13 978-1-7357646-6-5 / $26
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
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.
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.
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 Frenchphilosopher & editor of the groundbreaking Encyclopédie. In 1748, in need ofmoney, 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
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
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
“This modern classic deserves to be ranked alongside the great French erotic masterpieces,Story of OandThe 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
P R I A P E I A Upstanding Epigrams on Priapus
Selected by Lawrence Hamilton
Notes by Sir Richard Burton
Translated by Leonard C. Smithers
Pocket Erotica[№ 4 ]
ISBN 13978-1-7348166-9-3
70 pages; Illustrated; perfect bound; 4 x 6 inches; $10
s, and indiscretions. In this precursor to The Vagina Monologues, the women are portrayed as powerful beings through their liberated ideas and sexuality.
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