Aphrodite

(quarter-bound, light blue cloth over marbled boards; gilt-stamped lettering and small nude figure illustration on spine; no dust jacket) [a lovely copy, with just the slightest wear to the extremities, including a very slight exposure of the board at the lower tips; some of the pages remain unopened]. (B&W etchings) A nice copy of this desirable edition of the French poet's scandalous first novel, originally published in 1896, which recounts the tortured relationship of the courtesan Chrysis and the sculptor Dmtrios, the latter driven to commit theft and ultimately murder by the former's resistance to his desire for her. A sensation in France (it was reported to have already had 35 printings within a few months of its first publication), an English translation was printed in Paris as early as 1900, but the book drew the attention of American censors and customs officials and remained difficult to obtain in the U.S. for many years. (When Louys's brother-in-law lectured at Harvard in 1900, one prominent and widely-syndicated literary critic opined that "he ought to be ashamed of the relationship" because "Aphrodite" was "written, printed and bound nastiness, and unadulterated filth." Eventually a theatrical adaptation had a five-month run in New York in late 1919 and early 1920, and got the bluenoses' panties in a bunch all over again.) The nekkid-lady illustrations in this edition ("limited to 650 copies of which which 600 copies are for sale," this being no. 499) are by Clara Tice, the so-called "Queen of Greenwich Village"; this was one of a dozen or so books Tice illustrated during the 1920s, when she was at the height of her fame and in great demand as a magazine and theatrical illustrator.

Product Info

Publisher: Privately Printed

Year: 1926

Type: Used

Binding: Hardcover

Seller Info

ReadInk

Address: 2261 West 21st St. Los Angeles, California

Website: https://www.readinkbooks.com

Country: United States