Published as part of Jean Fort’s notorious Collection des Orties Blanches (White Nettle Collection), Les confidences de Chérubin (The Confessions of Chérubin) is signed ‘G. Donville’, a mysterious author who apart from this published only two further titles in another of Fort’s imprints, Collection aux Galants Passe-temps. No one has discovered who was hiding behind this cryptic name; it was almost certainly someone who wanted their true identity kept separate from the fruits of their transgressive erotic imagination. The chances are that it is the same author that also wrote for Fort under the names ‘Liane Lauré’, ‘Liane de Lorys’ and ‘Lucette de Chatay’, and Donville may be their real name. From the details of clothing and women’s fantasies it may well have been a woman, a devotee of lesbianism, spanking and frilly knickers.

Chérubin’s adventures in underwear-clad masochism are the perfect vehicle for Hérouard’s (as Herric) artistic skills, and an important resource for fashion historians of the period …

Les confidences de Chérubin was first published in the Collection des Orties Blanches, then a year later in the Collection aux Galants Passe-temps in a numbered edition of 2225 copies.