99 - [CURIOSA] LOUŸS, Pierre. A Manual of Civility for Young Girls for Use in Boarding Schools.

[CURIOSA] LOUŸS, Pierre. A Manual of Civility for Young Girls for Use in Boarding Schools. A rare copy from the first edition printed on Auvergne paper, complete with an original watercolor and a black-and-white set of the 12 erotic illustrations. London [Nice], n.p., 1948. One volume, in-8 (253 x 174 mm), in sheets, uncut, with a padded cover, plain slipcase, and cardboard case. 104 pp., frontispiece, and 11 color plates. Slits at the top of the folder spine; slipcase slightly rubbed. Clandestine edition, “printed for a group of enthusiasts at the expense of one of them.” The illustrations consist of 12 freehand compositions reproduced by stencil, reminiscent of the style of Rojan, the pseudonym of Feodor Rojankowsky (1891–1970), who illustrated other erotic works by Pierre Louÿs. Limited edition of 299 copies; this is one of the 6 first-print copies on Auvergne paper (No. I), which includes the original watercolor of one of the illustrations as well as the black-and-white version of the 12 insert plates. [Pia, 867]. An erotic work by Pierre Louÿs, written in 1917, this text is a scathing parody of the strict etiquette manuals of the Belle Époque. In it, Pierre Louÿs mocks moral precepts by pretending to instruct young women in the most immodest behaviors. Far from the affected refinement of *Chansons de Bilitis*, this *Manual of Civility* is undoubtedly Louÿs’s most subversive work, a full-scale attack on the bourgeois puritanism of his time. Excellent copy.