The Altar of Venus

Amidst the colourful backdrop of the roaring twenties, where money talked sweetly and seductively, a man of means and an appetite to match will pursue his sexual proclivities to true libertine proportions.

Our 30 something narrator recounts his sexual history, from naive youth to rakish gentleman, in a deliciously graphic prose. With eager fairground adolescents, accommodating prostitutes, coquettish Parisians, and knowledgeable vixens, our protagonist bears witness and partakes in the full range of physical gratification on offer.

And with a particular fondness for "Frenching" (gamahuching), our gentleman delights in the mysterious qualities of the Mons Veneris in the orgastic satisfactions of those he has the pleasure of intimate association.

This absolute gem of post Edwardian Erotica, written anonymously in 1934, paints a picture of a culture on the brink of sexual abandon, from the dingy to the decadent of London to the frolic of Parisian bordellos. A must for any collection of libertinage literature.