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Voyager Rare Books Maps & Prints » Products » Fiction » Erotic and exotic

Erotic and exotic

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  • The Awakening of the Soul – Ibn Tufail – from the translation of Paul Bronnle -1907

    The Awakening of the Soul – Ibn Tufail – from the translation of Paul Bronnle -1907

    A scarce translation of Hayy ibn Yaqzan a 12th Century work by Moorish philosopher Ibn Tufail. The first philosophical novel ever written.

    Small octavo, 87 pages, missing blank free end paper, clean inside, good green cloth covered boards with title and design to front, titles similarly on spine. Very scarce.

    Published by the Orient Press, London as part of the Wisdom of the East Series. We believe this publisher was part of the John Murray enterprise.

    The work not only had an influence or later Arabic work but also, over time, a significant influence in Europe, especially during the period of European Enlightenment.

    An allegorical novel which recounts the story of a feral child who is brought up by a gazelle alone in the desert. Without any human contact the child discovers ultimate truth through a process of reasoned enquiry. The child, Hayy, meets a castaway Absal through whom he understands the human desires for material goods … Hayy concludes that such things are distractions and should be abandoned to maintain ultimate truth.

    As an aside the author had a varied career including physician to the Almohad King and was a supporter of dissection and autopsy .. expressed in the novel.

    Small but powerful first philosophical novel – scarce in this form.

    $45.00

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  • Tales From the Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio [Beautifully Illustrated] – Private Printing 1937

    Tales From the Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio [Beautifully Illustrated] – Private Printing 1937

    Private Printed in, London 1937. A rare edition. Text based on an anonymous translation of 1741 revised by S.W. Orson in 1898. The striking illustrations are printed from linocuts by Edmondo Lucchesi, and we are told the typeface is 16-point Poliphilus.

    Demo-folio, quarter red cloth backed decorated red/pink paper covered boards with paper title to front. 89 pages numerous woodcuts. Some ageing near the ends, still a better than good copy of a favourite illustrated book.

    Boccaccio’s tales amusing, moral suggestions, and the odd amoral act. The long introductory title to each gives a flavour e.g.

    “Masse da Lamorecchio, pretending to be dumb, is appointed gardener at a nunnery, and is favourably received by the inmates”, and

    “Pernella puts her gallant into a tub on her husband’s coming home, which tub the husband had sold; she consequently tells him that she had also sold it to a person who was then in it to see if it were sound; upon this the man jumps out and makes the husband and makes the husband clean it for him”.

    Boccaccio with the titillating woodcuts of Edmondo Lucchesi

    $120.00

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  • The World’s Wickedest Women – Andrew Ewart – First Edition 1964

    The World’s Wickedest Women – Andrew Ewart – First Edition 1964

    Subtitled … “Intriguing Studies of Eve and Evil through the Ages” … written by a man.

    First edition published by Odham’s, London in 1964. octavo, 288 pages in pretty good condition.

    Starts with Sapho the Lesbian and Lecherous Layabouts of Ancient Rome and a new name for Cleopatra “Queen Harlot” .. so we get the tone. As the works becomes progressively more modern the work becomes more edgy and less theatrical and in the end is surprisingly enlightening although challenging.

    Wicked Women not for the faint hearted

    $40.00

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  • The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio

    The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio

    The complete unabridged Modern Library edition. Published in 1951 (by reference to the number of book on the list back of dust jacket). Thick octavo, 630 pages. With a forward by Morris Ernst dated 1930 regarding the difficult time the book had had in America because of draconian obscenity laws. Well here it is unadulterated.

    Translated by John Payne, which must have been a lengthy task and one well done. It has stood the test of centuries and was a source of inspiration for Chaucer, Shakespeare and Keats.

    Good condition albeit with two previous owners names on the end papers and later date stamp on half title. Light chips to dust jacket and a hint of fading, now protected in Brodart.

    A lusty bawdy delight by Boccaccio translated by Payne

    $30.00

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    Petronius – The Satyricon – Private Press – Norman Lindsay Illustrated – 1910

    A Revised Latin Text of the Satyricon with the Earliest English Translation (1694) Now First Reprinted with an Introduction together with One Hundred Illustrations by Norman Lindsay

    Published privately by Ralph Straus, London 1910. Folio, (33cm by 26cm), 303 pages, 100 leaves of plates.

    First English translation side by side with the Latin on alternating pages. The Satyricon, Satyricon liber (The Book of Satylike Adventures) a work of fiction by Gaius Petronius. It is and example of Menippean satire.

    Gaius Petronius Arbiter (27AD-66AD) was born in Marseille. He became a Roman Courtier in the reign of Nero. He is well mentioned by Tacitus, Plutarch and Pliny the Elder who regarded him as a “judge of elegance”. Petronius became a member of the Senatorial Class who devoted their lives to pleasure … he was essentially a fashion advisor to Nero. Sleeping by day he devoted night time to amusement … he had a reputation of being very good at it!

    In the Satyricon, Petronius uses a new style of writing in that each of the characters are well and openly described. Previously, such literature focused mainly on the plot. There is no holding back in terms of moral issues, and it is thought that the main character Trimalchio (who is on the naughty side) is a cameo of Nero.

    Petronius fell out of favour and committed suicide in a rather strange manner.

    Goings on in the Days of Nero – with numerous Norman Lindsay Illustrations.

    $390.00

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  • Secret Memoirs of the Duke and Dutchess of O***** (Orleans) – Madame d’Aunoy – First Edition 1708

    Secret Memoirs of the Duke and Dutchess of O***** (Orleans) – Madame d’Aunoy – First Edition 1708

    Title continues … Intermix’d with the Amorous Intrigues and Adventures of the Most Eminent Princes of The Court of France

    Made into English from the Paris Edition. Published in London, and printed by S.P.R. Burrough and J. Baker in Cornhill E. Curll without Temple Bar. E Sanger at the Post-House, and A Collins at the Black Boy on Fleetstreet, and Sold by J. Morphew near Stationers-Hall, 1708

    First English edition translated from the French of the 1690’s. Small octavo, 293. Strange pagination as the printer obviously had his pages mixed up so several times out of order but text runs exactly. Rebound in full leather, in period style by Roger Perry. Four raised bands with separate red leather title label to second compartment. Blind rules to bands and board edges. A delightful item.

    An expose of the amorous goings on of the Duke and Duchess of Orleans. The Duchess was Henrietta of England (1644-1670) youngest daughter of King Charles I. She fled England at the age of three with her governess for the French Court. She married King Louis XIV brother Philippe Duke of Orleans. Phillipe a reputed bisexual had been party to a series of sexual scandals prior to the marriage which was secured after the restoration of the Monarchy in England by a dowry from her brother Charles II.

    An interesting piece if factually based fiction and not at all vulgar.

    The author Madame d’Aulnoy was Marie Catherine Le Jumel de Barneville, Baroness d’Aulnoy (1650-1705). Lucky to have got away with it we would say.

    Early expose of the amorous lives of the Duke and Duchess of Orleans.

    $290.00

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