Monday, March 17, 2008

Wooster and Lord Wimsey in bed


This wasn't a joke. There is a book in which P.G. Wodehouse's hero, Bertie Wooster, and Dorothy Sayers's amateur sleuth, Lord Wimsey, are having a fucking contest. The book is a bit of mystery to me, in the vein of the Pietro Aretino book I was talking about before.

The book is called Himon temppeli in Finnish (The Temple of Lust) and it was published here in 1972. It's written by someone called "Phoege Kisshagen". The original title is given as Memoires d'une procureuse anglaise and that book certainly exists. It's a French erotic book published originally anonymously in the late 19th century. The book is supposed to be a memoirs of a madame in the 18th century London. Now, Phoebe Kisshagen is the main character of the book, but her name doesn't really feel like a real 18th or 19th century English name. I can't find enough about the original French book on-line, so I can't check whether the hero of the book is also "Phoebe Kisshagen".

But what about Bertie Wooster and Lord Wimsey? How can they be in a book that was published originally in 1891? I don't have the answer, but here they are. Wooster is a client of Phoebe Kisshagen's brothel and he gets into a fight with young Wimsey. Wimsey claims that Wooster is no longer the lover he once was and Wooster sets out to prove his reputation. He asks Madame Kisshagen to get two virgins - he and Wimsey would compete about which one breaks his girl first. Wooster wins - he seduces the girl and takes her in fourteen minutes and 37 seconds. Wooster dies afterwards, however, from exhaustion.

I believe this book is a hoax, but based loosely on the original Memoires d'une procureuse anglaise, rewritten by a Danish or Swedish porn hack, and no matter what I said earlier, I believe such is also the case with Pietro Aretino's memoirs. Oh the wonders of porn publishing!

11 comments:

Todd Mason said...

Cute publisher's logo. "No, it's really a nose!"

Juri said...

Other Finnish sex paperbacks had similar logos. I'll be posting some soon.

NSH said...

The Franch title you indicate is right. My edition is from Librairie Cupidon in 1891. It seems to be an early 20th century reprint as it does not contain the six illustratiions advertised.
Pia II 843 mentions the illustrations; Perceau, I-109 says that illustrations are not in the 1891 edition he saw.
Other references: Pia I 109-2 for a London edition is ated 1894. Perceau I 109-3 Mentions the same title he saw mentionned in a 1912 catalogue wit the added mention Phoebe Kissagen.Republished in 1894-1919-1921.
Hope it helps the bibliographer in you.
N.S.H.

NSH said...

Hello.
French title you give is right. My edition was published by Librairie Cupidon in 1891. It is said to have been translated fom English.
See Pia II 843 and Perceau 109-1.
Regards.
N.S.H.

Juri said...

N.S.H., thanks - does your copy of the book include a character called Phoebe Kisshagen?

NSH said...

To Juri.
Yes it does.
She is the owner of the bawdy house as 'the brothel of Leicester Fields'.
Regards.
NSH

NSH said...

Re: The famous Phoebe.

From Patrick J. Kearney’s A HISTORY OF EROTIC LITERATURE (London, Macmillan, 1982):

Talking about Edward Sellon and his works, Kearney writes:

‘...and ‘Phoebe Kissagen; or, the Remarkable Adventures, Schemes, Wiles, and Devilries of Une Maquerelle; being a sequel to the ‘New Epicurean’ (London, ‘1743' (1866); ....
Page 113.

I found no trace of the above in a French edition in Gay’s ‘Bibliographie des ouvrages... Nor in Rose’s Register of Erotic Books.

As far as English editions are concerned, see Rose, 3590:

‘Phoebe Kissagen; or, the Remarkable Adventures, Schemes, Wiles, and Devilries of Une Maquerelle; being a sequel to the ‘New Epicurean’ London 1743 (reprinted 1875) pp. 96, 8vo. Printed by Joseph Longtool, In and Out Lane, London.’

and

Gay, III 732, gives the title ‘Phoebe Kess’ with the same description as above but changing the size from an 8vo to a 16mo.
Note: Gay took a lot of his informatio from catalogues and often made mistakes in rewriting it.

Regards.
NSH

Juri said...

Thank you very much - I posted your findings on top of the blog.

NSH said...

Hello.
Just came across in my library of a book in the vein of the ''MÉMOIRES D'UNE PROCUREUSE ANGLAISE''.
Published in LONDRES 1804, that is Bruxelles, 1862, no publisher stated. ''LA MAQUERELLE ou Les Femmes débauchées''. This short text printed among a number of other titles (''La Légende joyeuse'', ''Entretiens voluptueux' (unauthored but by Aretino), etc. Inside the book, ''LA MAQUERELLE'' becomes ''LA MAQUERELLE DE LONDRES son caractère et sa mauvaise vie ou on peut découvrir les subtilités et les diverses intrigues des Femmes débauchées Traduit de L'Anglois'' (from page 155 to page 232). Gay II 789-790, mentions this title but not this specific edition. He also mentions (III 30) ''La Maquerelle de Londres'' and again he does not talk about this specific edition.
Both editions (Procureuse and Maquerelle) are on the same subject but the text is different.
Gay was a great 'recycler' of his own editions.

NSH

P.S. Refering to GAY I refer to the ''BIBLIOGRAPHIE ...'' authored by Gay and continued by Lemonnyer -1894-1900 in 4 volumes.

NSH said...

Hello.
Just came across in my library of a book in the vein of the ''MÉMOIRES D'UNE PROCUREUSE ANGLAISE''.
Published in LONDRES 1804, that is Bruxelles, 1862, no publisher stated. ''LA MAQUERELLE ou Les Femmes débauchées''. This short text printed among a number of other titles (''La Légende joyeuse'', ''Entretiens voluptueux' (unauthored but by Aretino), etc. Inside the book, ''LA MAQUERELLE'' becomes ''LA MAQUERELLE DE LONDRES son caractère et sa mauvaise vie ou on peut découvrir les subtilités et les diverses intrigues des Femmes débauchées Traduit de L'Anglois'' (from page 155 to page 232). Gay II 789-790, mentions this title but not this specific edition. He also mentions (III 30) ''La Maquerelle de Londres'' and again he does not talk about this specific edition.
Both editions (Procureuse and Maquerelle) are on the same subject but the text is different.
Gay was a great 'recycler' of his own editions.

NSH

P.S. Refering to GAY I refer to the ''BIBLIOGRAPHIE ...'' authored by Gay and continued by Lemonnyer -1894-1900 in 4 volumes.

NSH said...

Hello.
Just came across in my library of a book in the vein of the ''MÉMOIRES D'UNE PROCUREUSE ANGLAISE''.
Published in LONDRES 1804, that is Bruxelles, 1862, no publisher stated. ''LA MAQUERELLE ou Les Femmes débauchées''. This short text printed among a number of other titles (''La Légende joyeuse'', ''Entretiens voluptueux' (unauthored but by Aretino), etc. Inside the book, ''LA MAQUERELLE'' becomes ''LA MAQUERELLE DE LONDRES son caractère et sa mauvaise vie ou on peut découvrir les subtilités et les diverses intrigues des Femmes débauchées Traduit de L'Anglois'' (from page 155 to page 232). Gay II 789-790, mentions this title but not this specific edition. He also mentions (III 30) ''La Maquerelle de Londres'' and again he does not talk about this specific edition.
Both editions (Procureuse and Maquerelle) are on the same subject but the text is different.
Gay was a great 'recycler' of his own editions.

NSH

P.S. Refering to GAY I refer to the ''BIBLIOGRAPHIE ...'' authored by Gay and continued by Lemonnyer -1894-1900 in 4 volumes.