Mildly amusing but mostly juvenile and quite lewd satire of the educational handbooks that were popular in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Louÿs hadn’t intended it be published and it was probably meant as a private joke, but it is disturbing to see incest, molestation, rape, and child sex made light of, though those things and all of the other graphic commentary certainly provide a window into what is often idealized as a “more proper” age. Definitely nothing fit to quote here. ( )

This book is fantastically shocking and dirty and wonderful. ( )

Pierre Louÿs (1870-1925) was a French writer and poet known for his erotic writings. His first of these he penned at the age of 18, and his last were the obscene verses he composed on his deathbed. Whatever Monsieur Louÿs' flaws, inconsistency was not one of them.

Louÿs' Manuel de civilité..." was actually intended as a parody of the strict handbooks published at the time for adolescents. Long out of print, it was published in English translation in 1971 by Grove Press, and by Olympia in 2008.

The innocent titles of most of the chapters belie their naughty advice: "In Your Room"; "At the Dance", "At Confession", "At the Theatre" and "At Museums" (among many others), but there is also "In Bed with a Girlfriend", "With Servants", "With an Elderly Gentleman" and "With the President of the Republic." The pregnant advice is offered in 1-2 sentence homilies, and to put it delicately, one would search in vain for a single example that might be posted in a public venue like Library Thing.

This naughty work should be kept from the eyes of adolescents, adults who are easily offended, religious leaders, politicians running for office, guardians of public morality, upright people, uptight librarians, and anyone who lacks a strange sense of humor. Indeed, only the most perverse or sophisticated of readers is likely to find it amusing, and only the most unwise would admit to owning a copy. ( )

""