Joseph von WestphalenReseñas

This small hardcover booklet, by Joseph von Westphalen, of no more than 63 pages, came out as an occasional publication from the Swiss publisher Haffmans during the 1996 Christmas and New Year festive season. The story is hilariously humourous, describing the Christmas week of an obviously very high-class prostitute, Lametta Lasziv. For ridiculously high earnings, Lametta, sees a record number of clients, several a day, raking in piles of cash. The action does not seem ti tire here, as most clients satisfaction depends on their own perverse fetishist imagination, centered on Lametta. Among the clients are a literary critic, and various other high profile society figures.

A very entertaining read, which ended somewhat abruptly.½

This book provides beautiful pictures of bath houses, mainly in Germany, Austria [all Vienna], and Hungary. It also has a few from Turkey [Hamams], and one from California. Historical pictures show bathing in Japan in the 19th century. In addition to the text essay, there are citations from a number of famous people on bathing [Casanova, Mark Twain, Lady Montague, Plutarch, Yukio Mishima, Homer, etc.]. The book is a real joy for anyone liking to swim in a traditional setting.