MATURE CONTENT. Royal Tastes is an underground classic, a curious mixture of street slang, foreign words, archaism, and the sexual argot in which Verlaine took such obvious delight. He was the champion of the demi-monde, using his sexually explicit and sometimes intentionally gross writing as a weapon against the staid Romantic tradition of his day.
One of the better-kept secrets of nineteenth-century literature is symbolist poet Paul Verlaine's erotic trilogy Oeuvres Libres. Verlaine was a legend in his own time. And yet, in May of 1868, the first book was seized by the French customs, and the whole shipment was destroyed. Royal Tastes, retitled for this first complete and authoritative English translation, is a historic reissue of forgotten erotica too hot to publish for over a hundred years.
Verlaine was the quintessential bohemian. Throwing himself into tumultuous relationships with women and men, he embraced religion and alcohol with a passion and exuberance matched only by his prolific writing habit. The Prince of Poets was a saint and a sinner, calling himself a homo-duplex-a man torn between conventional heterosexuality and the enticement of his bisexual nature.
Title: Royal Tastes Erotic Writings
Author: Paul Verlaine, Translated with an Introduction and Commentary by Alan Stone
Manufactured in the United States of America
Publisher: Harmony Books, a division of Crown Publishers Inc. New York and simultaneously in Canada by General Publishing Company Limited
Publication Date: 1984
Illustrations: Yes, Artistic black and white nudes
Binding: Hardcover
Language: English and French
Pages: 192
ISBN 0-517-55495-X
Measures approximately: 5 1/2 x 8 1/4 inches (14 x 21 x cm.)
Condition of the book: Please see the images.
Interests: History, Erotic poetry, French translations into English. Erotic Poetry, English Translations from French
We combine shipping and invite you to visit our other listings.
Love it ♡
Get it ☆
Get Lucky 💋 Vintage