The Anti-Justine is a pornographic novelization of Restif de la Bretonne’s own life and sexual debauches, which the author tried to defend “morally” by declaring his book to be an “antidote” to the supposed poison of de Sade; yet the book is a monumental odyssey of sexual depravity that often rivals de Sade in its relentless explicitness.
This copy is 135/350, rather curiously some books in the same limitation do not have the plates coloured. In this copy the engravings are hand coloured and rather beautifully so, the artist signs himself Le Loup, and to the best of my knowledge remains unidentified.
This book is available to trade against any of my Paris Olympia Press wants, as listed in Books Wanted on this site.
The publisher was something of a character to say the least, and here I borrow from Patrick Kearneys Scissors and Paste web site:-
Together with René Bonnel, Maurice Duflou was one of the more important erotica publishers in Paris between the two World Wars, but unlike Bonnel he tended to avoid the more avant-garde extremes of the genre, concentrating for the most part on reprints and only the occasional original work. Duflou’s longtime association with Louis Perceau–similar to Bonnel’s with Pascal Pia–produced a number of fine new editions of important eighteenth century works, and several of Perceau’s own compositions and editorial endeavors, including Le Keepsake Galant, a fascinating anthology of shorter erotic pieces, which was by Perceau’s own admission “…l’un des curieux de ceux qu’on publiées sous le manteau au XXe siècle…”. (See Perceau, 327-1.)
In addition to being a publisher, Duflou was also a printer, and there is evidence to suggest that he may have printed books for others. School Life in Paris (‘Privately Printed, 1923’) for example is pointedly described by Pia (2nd ed., p. 684) as being merely printed by Duflou, whereas all the other Duflou titles noted by Pia are French and stated to have been both printed and published by him. This suggests that Duflou’s work as a printer for others may have been limited to cheaply produced English works ‘for the trade’ rather than the finely printed works he did in partnership with Perceau and others.
RESTIF DE LA BRETONNE, (Nicolas-Edmé). – L’Anti-Justine, ou les Délices de l’amour. Nouvelle édition entièrement revue et corrigée, établie pour la première fois sur le texte originale de 1798. Précédée d’une Notice Bibliographique par Helpey, bibliophile poitevin [Louis Perceau]. Ile Sainte-Louis: De l’imprimerie de Monsieur Nicolas [c. 1930]. 4to. pp. 244. 12 ‘aquatintes libres reproduites en héliogravure.’ Limited to 350 copies on papier Alfax.
This copy: Foxing to covers and edges of page block, book and contents in very good condition and complete with 12 beautifully executed explicit erotic illustrations by Le Loup.
For a detailed description of the condition of the book please leave a comment on this page.