More of an excuse to sell soft erotica than for literary merit, this collection of mildly titillating poems is a typical offering of the Paris publisher Georges Briffaut.

The poems are by Roger de Beauvoir, J. Méry, Victor Hugo, Jules Janin, Théophile Gautier, G. Nadaud, Charles Baudelaire, A. Delvau, Charles Monselet, A. Glatigny, H. Murger, and Camuset’s Les sonnets du docteur. The eight illustrations are typical late Bécat offerings.

L’oeuvre libertine des poètes du XIXème siècle was produced in a limited numbered edition of 1000 copies, the first twelve of which were signed by Bécat and Briffaut.