Les jeux du plaisir et de la volupté, par une femme du monde (Games of Pleasure and Voluptuousness, by a Woman of the World) is dated 1906, but was actually published in 1936. The text is by Johannes Gros, publisher of clandestine sado-erotic literature and the author of several similar ‘erotic memoires’, and although unsigned and unattributed the sixteen illustrations bear all the hallmarks of Luc Lafnet. The explicit subject matter is typical of the many illustrated volumes sold by specialist bookshops in Paris during the 1930s, often to ‘discerning English gentlemen’.

Les jeux du plaisir was published by Au Boudoir Secret, in a limited numbered edition of 625 copies.

We are grateful to Steve Mullins of the Olympia Press website (www.parisolympiapress.com) for these illustrations.