Du Bourdel, P. [Erotica] Mademoiselle de Mustelle.

"et ses Amies, Roman Pervers d’yne Fillette elegante et vicieuse.."
[Pseud. Pierre Dumarchey, better known as Pierre Mac Orlan].
Quebec: Sweetgra’s, 1913.
Second edition, in all (the first was published in 1912). 8vo. 164pp. Bound in attractive olive morocco over green cloth boards, gilt rules and decoration to spine and boards. Titled in gilt to spine. Top edge gilt. Marbled endpapers, internally clean, the occasional sign of some careless page opeing to the untrimmed fore-edge, a very good copy indeed. Red and black title page. As is usual with such flights of clandestine erotic literature, the title was actually published in Paris under a Quebec imprint (presumably 1913 Quebec was far enough away to be a hotbed of classy smut. An early, and rather acclaimed, working on the theme of “well bred young woman attends college (Moliere School no less), and is bored...until of course Miss Ketty, Justine and the rather satyrian Sir Archibald introduce her to previously unconsidered benefits of further education.” A familiar trope to Dumarchey (who explored it a couple of times under the pseudonym of “Sadie Blackeyes” amongst others), whose writing and indeed handling of such subject matter is thought of as being head and shoulders above the legions of Parisian hacks, powered by cigarettes and Pernod, sweating away in garrets trying to think of a new way to describe female genitalia (Hmm...’Secret perfumed cleft’? ‘Garden of pearly delight’? ‘Lust bedewed Mount of Venus’? Merde alors, I’m out of Gauloises! Nom du Nom, I should have stuck to the office job!). A rarity in early editions, there’s a gorgeous 1928 printing and a slew of POD, but this refugee from a lady or gent’s ‘hide in plain sight’ library is rather delightful.
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