[Claude-François-Étienne, baron Dupin ou Rousseau Jacquin ?]. La Prusse galante ou Voyage d’un jeune Français à Berlin. Traduit de l’allemand, par le docteur Akerlino. Coïtopolis, et se trouve à Berlin et à Paris, chez les marchands de Nouveautés, an 1801. In-12. 166 p. Engraved erotic frontispiece. Bound in marbled beige boards in a muted Bradel style.
An unusual clandestine edition of this famous erotic novel, which was blacklisted in 1825. Attributed to Baron Claude-François-Étienne Dupin (1767-1828), the first prefect of Deux-Sèvres and master adviser to the Court of Auditors, published by the Paris printer Rousseau Jacquin, to whom some bibliographers, such as Barbier, attribute the real authorship: “Perhaps Mr Jacquin was no stranger to this erotic production, which he attributed to one of the workers at his printing works”, our edition differs from an official edition published simultaneously by the same publisher in association with Desenne, Duprat and Mareschal in that it has a much bolder frontispiece and chapters.
We might mention, for example, the ‘gallant part’ of chapter XV, where the hero imagines himself with his lover Julienne in order to find the strength he needs to satisfy his two companions, one of whom is the Baroness de Culamon, ‘a woman of about forty years old, whose ample stature announced opulence’.
Another example is the attempt at non-consensual deflowering that the Baron of Liébentwal made against Julienne, a young virgin who, ‘not being able to do otherwise, had let herself be taken where she believed she would be least dishonoured’.(p. 155).
The work, translated into German, was published the following year, still anonymously, in Coblentz under the title Das galante Preussen, oder Reise eines jungen Franzosen nach Berlin. Aus dem Franzosischen.
Barbier, Anonymes, 15035 ; Drujon, Ouvrages poursuivis, p. 333 ; Gay, III, 882.
The binder has not preserved the half-title, and the table of chapters seems to be missing from this clandestine edition; tear without loss with missing of stamping pp. 57-58 which in no way hinders the understanding of the text, tear on the last leaf skilfully restored, some foxing; small accident to the head cap.
Rare roman fort libre, édition clandestine dans une reliure des plus discrètes qui soit, tout aussi clandestine.
A rare erotic novel, published clandestinely in one of the most discreet bindings available, and just as clandestine.
450 €