Chefs d’oeuvre de Pierre Louÿs: Aphrodite, Aventures du Roi Pausole, Chansons de Bilitis, Psyche, Poems Libres, La Femme et Le Pantin.

LOUÿS, Pierre.

$1,250.00

Item Number: 94692

Paris: Les Editions de l'Ibis, 1972-73.

Deluxe limited Ibis edition of the works of Pierre Louÿs. Quartos, 6 volumes, bound in full red pebbled morocco with gilt titles and tooling to the spine in six compartments within raised bands, elaborate gilt ruling to the panels, top edges gilt, pictorial endpapers, with 12 original colored lithographs per volume by Brenot and others. Limited edition, one of 1572 sets produced. In near fine condition. Exquisitely illustrated.

Through his writings, Louÿs sought to "express pagan sensuality with stylistic perfection." Perhaps his best-known work, Les Chansons de Bilitis, is a collection of erotic, essentially lesbian, poetry first published in 1894. The work is considered a pseudotranslation, as Louÿs claimed it to be his translation of the original poems of Bilitis, a courtesan of Sappho in Ancient Greece. The work was eventually exposed as a literary fraud, this did little, however, to taint its literary value as an open celebration of lesbian sexuality.