[Manuscript pour Une Volupté Nouvelle.]

Manuscript copy of Louÿs' work, first published in 1899.

Pierre Louÿs (1870-1925) was born in Ghent in 1870 into a Champagne family, who had taken refuge in Belgium because of the German advance. He studied at the École Alsacienne where he was a classmate of André Gide. He was a close friend of Debussy and Oscar Wilde and he became a very well-known French poet and writer. He was made first a Chevalier and then an Officer of the Légion d'honneur for his contributions to French literature.

In this work the author playfully imagines the reawakening of an ancient nymph after hundreds of years to discover what new pleasures and vices are now no longer banned. A fine example of Louÿs' use of classical themes in his erotic works.