Les chansons secrètes de Bilitis (The Secret Songs of Bilitis) is a ragtag of a book, with selected extracts from a number of works including Pierre Louÿs’s Bilitis, Musset’s Les filles de Loth (Lot’s Daughters), Monnier’s L’étudiant et la grisette (The Student and the Prostitute), and the anonymous Compendium érotique and Ballade mythologique. Published ‘Au depèns d’un Amateur et des Souscriteurs’ (at the expense of an amateur and subscribers) in a limited numbered edition of 196 copies, it is very much a vehicle for for its illustrations, which are both colourful and accomplished.

As well as the twelve full-page illustrations, the book is peppered with pink penises like the one on the title page. Whoever ‘Jean Jouy’ was, he clearly enjoyed taking part in the creation of this volume.