Yvonne [Victorian erotica] by Dubarry, Arthur

London, England: Royal Press, 1865 [i.e., NY, 1920s?] A scarce early edition. Limited to 500 copies, this copy being unnumbered. Not recorded by OCLC/WorldCat, although we did not locate two incomplete copies in the Kinsey Institute's collection at the University of Indiana. Yvonne recounts the erotic adventures of a young French girl and her governess. Unlike male-centric works of this genre, the women tell their own story as willing and unabashed participants in explicit sexual activity that includes masturbation, lesbianism, incest, flagellation, group sex, and more. Illustrated by color endpapers and 5 color plates. (Our images are partly obscured to prevent duplication.) Yvonne has a cryptic publication history typical of literary pornography that originated in the Victorian era. The author, artist, date, and place of publication of this edition all appear to be fictitious. The pseudonym Arthur Dubarry may be a nod to Armand Dubarry, a French journalist who wrote a series of titillating novels from 1896-1902 based on pseudo-scientific German case studies of sexual deviancy and perversion. The 1898 1st edition (London and Paris) was published as Yvonne, or the Adventures and Intrigues of a French Governess and her Pupils. "Mary Suckit" was the purported translator of the "real tale" from France, but bibliographic evidence suggests a marketing ploy to add intrigue to a work actually of English origin. The earliest known French edition (Marie la Goule's Yvette) did not appear until 1908. (9), 10-152 pp. Plates counted in the pagination. 8vo. Bound in one-quarter purple cloth and decorative paper boards. VG with some wear at the extremities and surface marks to the cloth, evidently from old silverfishing. Internal cracks to the text block before two of the plates, but securely bound otherwise. Clean internally. A sound, complete copy. Protected by a clear archival jacket.