Amélie de Saint-Far, ou la Fatale Erreur; Par Madame de C***, Auteur de Julie, ou J'ai sauvé ma Rose.

A Hambourg, et à Paris, chez les Marchands de Nouveautés, s.d. (c. 1808). 2 volumes 12mo. 2 leaves. 236 pages. 6 original drawings and 2 leaves. 236 pages. 6 original drawings. Full long-grain blue morocco, finely decorated ribbed spines, gilt roulette around the boards, decorated inner edges and spines, salmon-colored moire endpapers (binding from the second half of the 19th century). First Edition of the second pornographic novel written and published by a woman in French, preceded only by "Julie, ou j'ai sauvé ma Rose" by the same author, published the previous year. This work, of which there are two known editions with the same pagination (one dated, the other undated, as in this case), was placed on the index by the police in 1825. It caused a scandal not only because of its pornographic nature, but also - and above all - because it was written by a woman. The literary critic Girault de Saint-Fargeau mentioned it in 1839, evoking the "pity and disgust" he felt for "such pictures depicted by a woman". "Around 1800, there tended in France to be a clear gender division in the production of stories about love and passion. Women novelists such as Adèle de Souza, Sophie Cottin, and Félicité de Genlis wrote sentimental stories in which young men and women died of unrequited love. On the other hand, male authors such as Mirabeau, Restif de la Bretonne, and Andréa de Nerciat were setting up the pattern of modern pornography, by writing forthright stories in which people took their sexual pleasure quickly and often. Choiseul-Meuse's erotic work, while self-consciously feminine, does not fit this gendered pattern. She focusses on women's pleasure and seductive tactics, attempting to make room for nuanced desires and gentle pleasures" (Cryle). This first edition is obviously very rare. It is only listed in the collections of four institutions in France, often in the form of incomplete fragments, and we have not been able to locate any copies abroad. An outstanding copy with twelve original ink drawings specially composed for the book and attributed to Jules Adolphe Chauvet (1828-c. 1905). "Merveilleux pasticheur du XIXe siècle, Chauvet travaillait beaucoup à la demande. Gay fit de nombreuses fois appel à lui pour ses éditions bruxelloises avouées ou clandestines" (Bibliothèque érotique Gérard Nordmann). A very fine copy from the library of the great Swiss bibliophile Gérard Nordmann (1930-1992), who built up the world's largest collection of erotic books in the last century, auctioned by Christie's in 2006. Bibliothèque érotique Gérard Nordmann I, 2006, no. 82. Gay-Lemonnyer, Bibliographie des ouvrages relatifs à l'amour I, col. 91: "roman licencieux, cynique et peu commun". Pia, Les Livres de l'enfer, pp. 33-35. Peter Cryle in: "Encyclopedia of Erotic literature" (Routledge, 2006), p.236. Girault de Saint-Fargeau, Revue des Romans, I, p.321: "If a man had written it, he could be reproached for having betrayed by his writings the derangement of morals; but when such pictures have been written by a woman, pity and disgust stop censorship".