ALEXANDRIAN — A HISTORY OF EROTIC LITERATURE - Lot 9

ALEXANDRIAN — A HISTORY OF EROTIC LITERATURE ALEXANDRIAN (Sarane, known as Alexandrian). A History of Erotic Literature. Paris: Éditions Seghers, 1989. Large 8vo (approx. 24.7 × 16 cm), 406 pp. and 16 pp. of plates, publisher’s hardcover with a color-illustrated dust jacket. Illustrations and reproductions of documents both within the text and as inserts. ISBN 2-232-10243-2 (EAN 9782232102431). Bibliographic records confirm the Seghers edition of May 1989 and its extensive iconography. First edition of this important work by Sarane Alexandrian, an art historian and writer associated with the Surrealist movement. The author presents a comprehensive critical history of Western erotic literature, from antiquity through the 20th century: Aristophanes, Ovid, Boccaccio, Aretino, Rabelais, Sade, Sacher-Masoch, Pierre Louÿs, Apollinaire, Genet, the Surrealists, etc. The book also devotes significant attention to underground and libertine authors who were long marginalized by literary history. Alexandrian notably distinguishes between the concepts of the erotic, the obscene, and the pornographic. The book’s critical success explains its numerous subsequent reprints by Payot and later by Pocket; it remains regarded as a seminal study on the history of erotic literature. Condition: apparently complete copy. Interior in generally good condition, though with a few handwritten pencil annotations visible on the “By the Same Author” page. The dust jacket is very worn, heavily scuffed and scratched, with wear, tears, and small losses at the top and bottom flaps and corners; more significant damage to the spine and the lower hinge.