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.

First published in 1833, Gamiani was the most reprinted work during the nineteenth century, appearing in no fewer than 41 editions, and in the twentieth it was virtually de rigueur for any illustrator worth their salt to be commissioned for an illustrated edition of Gamiani.

Lehman/Nam’s drawings are loose and not particularly skilled – he was better at animals than humans – but his imagination is undimmed, and like many Gamiani illustrators he adds quite an entourage of extra characters to the original threesome of Gamiani, Fanny and Alcide.

Our portfolio includes all the colour plates, together with the black and sanguine (blood red) images from the book, and a selection of the plates with the added rémarques or marginal drawings.

The Jacques Nam illustrated Gamiani was ‘Edité par un Groupe de Bibliophiles’ (edited by a group of bibliophiles) and published in a limited numbered edition of 325 copies. The first 25 copies included a duplicate set of plates with added ‘rémarques’, little extra drawings in the margin.