Gamiani, ou deux nuits d’excès (Gamiani, or Two Nights of Excess), generally believed to have been written by Alfred de Musset, is one of the best-known and most-illustrated of French erotic novels. Based on de Musset’s experiences with George Sand and her lesbian lover, Gamiani opens with Alcide watching Countess Gamiani and her young lover Fanny enjoying one another’s bodies. Very much aroused, Alcide reveals himself and joins them, and they spend the rest of their time together sharing their intimate stories and re-enacting scenes from them.

Gamiani is one of the most frequently-illustrated erotic classics, but this volume of the Erotic Print Society’s Scarlet Library is the only illustrated and well-tramslated English-language version. It was Vania Zouravliov’s first EPS commission, and though the quality of the reproduction is not always very good it demonstrates clearly his skill and ability in capturing the essence of an erotic narrative in sharp black and white images.