Very Rare. ESTC records copies of this edition at BL only (x2 copies, one is imperfect (“wanting pp. 119-122”). An edition dated 1785 (also stated as printed by Nourse on the title-page but with different pagination and title-page ornaments (that “suggest either Dutch or Swiss origin”) is recorded by ESTC at Jagiellonian Library (Cracow, Poland) only and a second edition in two volumes in 24mo, again stated as printed by Nourse in London, titled Correspondance d’Eulalie, ou Tableau du libertinage de Paris. Avec la vie de plusieurs filles ce´lebres de ce siecle and dated 1785 is recorded by ESTC at BL (“Pp.139-140,145-168 of vol.2 mutilated”), BnF, and the Kinsey Institute only. The only copy of any edition recorded in Rare Book Hub is a single example of the second edition offered in a French auction in 2014.
A sexually explicit novel disguised as a supposedly real collection of letters sent from one 18th-century Parisian prostitute to another recounting her exploits and relationships with various men including a besotted French nobleman who lavishes gifts on her (whom she exploits) and a handsome young (and sexually inexperienced) man who she falls in love with. As well as detailing Eulalie’s sexual encounters we also learn much about upperclass social life in Paris through the detailed footnotes of the “editor.”
In the “Préface de l’Éditeur” we are told that this book is a reproduction of letters between Eulalie (seemingly an actress but as we find out in the main body of the text, a prostitute) and her friend (a fellow prostitute) Julie, with whom she was very close when they were both in Paris. The correspondence has been broken because Julie has gone travelling with an Englishman. The editor states that he has explained some reference in the footnotes for “ceux qui ne connoissent pas Paris” and published the whole to stop other men being duped by women like Eulalie and Julie.
The very first letter recounts how a “Maquerelle à Paris” has convinced a man (“usé de débauches, qui a la manie des pucelages” p.6) that Julie is a virgin and sold her virginity to him for “50 louis”:
“Je luis ses présentée comme une petite paysanne nouvellement arrivée de sons village. Dès qu’on m’eut livrée à sa discrétion, je n’omis aucune des simagrées d’usage dans pareilles occasions; je poussai des cris perçans, je pleurai, j’égratignai: en un mot, j’aid joué mon rôle d’un air si naturel, qu’il m’a crue aussi vierge que l’enfant qui vient de naître. Quoique son priape pliât à chaque instant & fût si foible qu’à peine en sentois-je les coups, je gémiffois profondément, je le suppliois d’avoir pitié de moi, de ne pas me déchirer davantage, que j’en mourois s’il continuoit. L’amour-propre, qui aveugle toujours les hommes sur cet article, lui fit croire qu’il avoit sait des efforts héroïques.” (p.6)
[I presented myself to him as a young peasant girl newly arrived from her village. As soon as I was at his mercy, I omitted none of the usual antics for such occasions; I uttered piercing cries, I wept, I scratched: in short, I played my part so naturally that he believed me as innocent as a newborn child. Although his penis bent at every moment and was so weak that I scarcely felt his thrusts, I moaned deeply, begging him to have pity on me, not to tear me apart further, for I would die if he continued. Self-love, which always blinds men in this matter, made him believe that he had made heroic efforts.]
The novel continues with several sexually explicit passages including descriptions of whipping (“Il m’a fallu hier, chez la Présidente, foutter pendant plus de deux heures un vieux Président, tandis qu’à geneoux devant moi, il me gamahuchoit” (p.9); sodomy (“plongé le même dard, qui sortoit de l’antre de la volupté, dan un endroit que la nature ne lui a nullement destiné” p.42); a well-endowed Prince (“il étala à mes yeux un membre viril dont l’aspect me fit tembler” (p.89) and a woman with, “le clitoris gros comme le petite doigt” which at times has, “momens d’érection” (p.96) There is also a scene where Eulalie disguises one of her loves as a woman (“j’avois habillé en femme. Comme il a la peau trés-blanche & n’a pas encore de barbe, mes ajustemens lui vont à merveilles” p.148) in order to attend a ball with him whilst in the company of another man.
The long and extensive footnotes seem to be aimed at an English reader (or at least not a French native) and provide information on many of the fashionable restaurants, cafes, theatres, and clothes makers in the capital city. She also describes attending, “la premiere représentation du Roi Lear, Tragédie de M. Ducis, imitée de Shakespear” (p.131) which premiered, with its rewritten happy ending, on 16 Jan. 1783 before the king and queen at the Théatre de la Reine at Versailles. The novel is presented as though it were a guide to understanding the tricks played by prostitutes on men and indeed Eulalie does deceive many of the men she receives money for sex with (at one point she prepares false invoices which are to be paid by one of her customers) but she is also tricked herself when she finds she has been paid by a deceitful Polish man with worthless tokens rather than coins (p.127) and she is also at danger of being cast aside by her main “lover” in favour of someone else. The novel ends with Eulalie herself finding an English man who wishes to take her travelling with him.
Ostensibly produced in London by “one of the great European booksellers of the Enlightenment” (ODNB), John Nourse (bap.1705-1780), but in reality it was almost certainly produced in France (most likely Paris) and the reference to Nourse is one of many false imprints recorded in ESTC - “His editions were so well known on the continent that his name was used by clandestine publishers there as a disguise.” (ODNB) The fact that the present copy survives in a contemporary French binding also suggests that it was printed in France rather than “a Londres.” Typographically, it also appears French and the distinctive title-page ornament and head-pieces are not English.
This deeply shocking novel appears to have received no scholarly attention in the UK or America (perhaps due to its great rarity) but deserves to be studied further for the portrayal of prostitution and attitudes towards sex in the period in both England and France.
Provenance: Ladislaus Reisenleitner, signature dated Paris 15th October 1882 on the front flyleaf.
