I give this bizarre little piece of Decadent erotica four stars. It’s purported to be “translated” from the second century dramatist/writer Lucian but from what little I’ve been able to glean from other sources is actually all the creation of the “translator” [a:Pierre Louÿs|47465|Pierre Louÿs|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1217345711p2/47465.jpg]. Oddly there is an introduction that talks about Lucian’s writing, etc. that lends verisimilitude to the whole thing.

The research I’ve done calls the whole a novel but it’s in the form of little, only partially connected, dramas, each only a few pages long. The book is full of prostitutes, lesbians, homosexuals, cuckolds, and the fiction is quite modern and entertaining. Probably considered racy in its time, there is nothing explicit and the English is in an archaic thee and thou to enhance its authenticity. It probably was a brown wrapper item in its day though.

I actually bought the book for the lovely Decadent Deco illustrations by [a:Beresford Egan|7212540|Beresford Egan|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] which oddly and delightfully have nothing to do with the text.

The book is first edition numbered and on handmade paper copyright 1929 from Fortune Press which seems to have made a business out of unconventional books on everything from demonology and the occult to Mother Goose. ( )