About this title: Novel. "This hideously decadent fin-de-siecle novel by the French anarchist Mirbeau has become an underground classic... There are satirical and allegorical dimensions, but it remains irreducibly horrible" (The Sunday Times). First published in 1898, the decadent classic Oscar Wilde recommended as "revolting...a sort of grey adder" is available in a new edition from Dedalus, translated by Michael Richardson and with an introduction by Brian Stableford. The century that has passed since its first publication has done nothing to tame the book that, in Anne Billson's words, "flays civilised ...
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Edition: New Ed
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Juno Books
Date Published: 1/1/2000
ISBN-13:9780965104265ISBN:0965104265
Description: Fair. 0965104265 Unused overstock copy with light wear to edges from shelving. Book is is bowed in middle and spine has two hairline tears across its surface. read more
Edition: Revised Edition
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Olympia Press
Date Published: 2005
ISBN-13:9781596540675ISBN:1596540672
Description: Very Good. 1596540672. Reprint of erotic novel first published in 1899. Translated from the French. Light wear to cover, no interior markings, sound binding.; The New Traveller's Companion Series, Number 44; 124 pages. read more
Edition: Second Printing
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Berkley Books, New York, NY USA
Date Published: 1956
Description: Good. No Jacket Issued. Book has minor edgewear, a slight spine slant and reading creases at hinge and right of cover; spine has small slit at top, reinforced with proper booktape. Book has expected yellowing from age. Otherwise, book is tight and unmarked. USPS Delivery Confirmation included. read more
Description: Mirbeau, Octave., trans. by Alvah C. Bessie w/foreword by James Huneker., The Citadel Press, nd (1949), c1931, cloth, end papers lightly foxed, slightly cocked o/w good+ (no dj), 253 pp, 8vo, 'Alas, the gates of life never swing open except upon death... read more
Description: 157 p. 1st paperback edition from Berkley (#111), 1955. Light dampstaining to bottom of book, corner bump, else a VERY GOOD PLUS copy. read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Berkley Books, New York
Date Published: 1955
Description: Paperback. Light shelfwear. Very good. 157pp. Translated from the French by Alvah C. Bessie, a complete and unabridged edition of the classic French erotic tale of perversity. 111. read more
Edition: First Berkley Edition
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Berkley Books, New York
Date Published: 1955
Description: Good+ 16mo-over 5¾"-6¾" tall. Spine rather fragile, text yellowed, but clean and unmarked. "Here is a novel that is hot with the fever of ecstatic, prohibited joys, as cruel as a thumbscrew and as luxuriant as an Oriental tapestry-[the] exotic story of Clara and her insatiable desire for the perverse and the forbidden. " read more
Edition: 1st U.S. edition
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Claude Kendall, New York
Date Published: 1931
Description: Illustrated by Jeanette Seelhoff. Good. NOISBN. (no dust jacket) [worn but intact, considerable edgewear, browning/soiling to page edges, soiling to covers, binding spreading at a couple of points but not actually split (and no loose pages)]. Erotic novel, translated from the French (Le Jardin des Supplices). Originally published in 1898, this book was supposedly the inspiration in some unspecified fashion for Luis Bunuel' s 1967 film BELLE DE JOUR, although the credits proper to the film ... read more
Description: Mirbeau, Octave., trans. by Alvah C. Bessie, Berkley Pub., Corp., 1955, c1931, stiff wrapps, pps browned as usual o/w vg, 157 pps, 6 3/8' x 4 1/4', 'Here is a novel that is hot with the fever of ecstatic, prohibited joys, as cruel as a thumbscrew...' read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Re/Search Publications
Date Published: 1989
ISBN-13:9780940642133ISBN:0940642131
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. (A8/8-13)Book is in good condition. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. Re/Search Classics. Audience: General/trade. read more
Edition: First Printing
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: N.Y. : Lancer # 74-840, 1965, 1st Printing
Description: Frank Frazetta Cover Art. Very Good+ -----------paperback, a solid Very Good+ copy, 191 pages, cover art is by Frazetta, 4+ page foreword by Woodward (a pen name used by Robert Silvergerg), any image directly beside this listing is the actual book and not a generic photo. read more
"What a magnificent book! It's interesting that the French in the late ninteenth century produced works that exploitation filmmakers in the sixties and seventies could only attempt to match."
"I expected a little more out of this one, since it's hailed as this shocking fin de siecle masterpiece. Maybe I'm jaded. It wasn't the best translation, either, and my copy has this ridiculous cover photo of a Catherine Deneuve-type from Belle de Jour, obviously meant to draw in and titillate, and which couldn't misrepresent the book and its premise any more.
Win some, lose some, I suppose. I'd probably have really dug this in high school, when I discovered Nin, Miller, and D.H. Lawrence, but I'm a big girl now."
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