This book is a treasure trove to be welcomed by those of us who are under the erotic spell of the human backside, principally (but not exclusively) that possessed by the female of the species. The translators of the French original, Margaret Crosland and Elfreda Powell clearly enjoyed their work, and as far as I can tell they have dealt most creditably in rendering the idiosyncrasies of the French tongue into credible English idiosyncrasies. The book is a collection of 32 short essays, each dealing with just about every conceivable aspect of their fleshily rounded subject including, if I may dare to speak its name, or at least refer to it, its 'biologically inconceivable' usage. The book draws on many little known French artistic depictions of bottoms, and little-known literary descriptions, and the book's shortcoming relates to its inability to present all of the potentially helpful images in its size and format. The images that are included are necessarily perfunctory and indicative rather than truly useful. I admit that a completely satisfactory treatment would be well beyond the book's scope and cost, but I do see this as a flaw, however unavoidable it may be. ( )