L’École des filles / The School of Venus (1665)

L’Escole des filles de Militot. Réimpression complète du texte original sur la contrefaçon hollandaise de 1660. Frontispiece by Félicien Rops. Bruxelles: Aux dépens des dames de la rue des Cailles [Poulet-Malassis, 1865]. Kinsey Institute Library: 843.5 M65 e2 1865.

Considered the first French libertine novel of the seventeenth century, L'École des filles [The School for Girls], whose author is unknown, was published in Paris in 1655. The narrative recounts the sexual initiation of the young female character Franchon, through two dialogues with her cousin Susanne and a sexual relationship with the male character Robinet [faucet]. Michel Millot, the first publisher of the book, was put on trial and the book burned in Paris on August 9, 1655. A first English translation of the novel was clandestinely published in 1680, under the title The School of Venus, or the Ladies Delight, Reduced into Rules of Practice. The novel was not legally published, in either France or the United States, until the twentieth century.

First edition: https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8601526t

English translation: https://archive.org/details/TheSchoolOfVenusOrTheLadiesDelightReducedIntoRulesOfPractice/page/n19