topics: |  erotica | graphic-novel |

This work appeared in French, with artwork by noted artist Milo Manara. This is part of Manara's early corpus, much of which focuses on the erotic.

Jean-Pierre Enard

Enard (1943-1987) was a French intellectual, author of seven novels, and editor of a well-known line of books for teens (Bibliotheque Rose). His novel La Reine du technicolor (1980) [The Technicolor Queen] is about a post-world war detective, investigating the death of an actress in her bathtub. An unlikely helper emerges in a twelve year boy, who reads Tintin, and longs to wear trousers. Other notable novels include Sartre's Last Sunday (Le Dernier Dimanche de Sartre, 1978) Class Photo (1979), and Le Métro aérien (1986).

Enard also wrote two erotic works (the other titled Contes à faire rougir les petits chaperons "Tales that would make young chaperons blush").

He died very soon after finishing this book, at age 44, and did not see it
out in print.   It was translated into English five years later.

In one of his literary critiques, he remarks how a good writer is a dead
writer (Un bon ecrivain est un ecrivain mort).   In his own case,
his works were largely forgotten, but today he is undergoing a rediscovery
and some of his novels and essays have been re-published by Finitude.


Jean-Paul Enard.  He died at 44,
before this work was published.

A different erotic

The text sparkles with spiffy observations, and the linework by Manara is
brilliantly executed.  This is an exceptional work, and sure to be read for
long.

In the story, Eva Lindt, "The gossip queen, the sultana of scandal", is
travelling to Vienna on the Paris-Venice train.  She likes train journeys,
because "Trains lend themselves to encounters.  Especially on long trips."
A co-passenger with the unlikely name of Donatien Casanova joins her in the
first-class compartment.  [Donatien is de Sade's first name, and Giacomo
Casanova is famed for his sexual exploits].

The story revolves around a diary by Casanova where he writes down his
sexual experiences, gradually drawing Eva into this world.  He laments the
how spanking has gone out of style, while whips and leather.  His diary is a
paean to spanking, and through this encounter, he hopes to get Eva Lindt to
write about it, so as to bring spanking to its rightful place in sexual
society.

It was translated into English by Elisabeth Bell, who normally translates
children's books.

Excerpts

Casanova to Eva Lindt (preface):
   Your victims... can use the notoriety.  Whether people speak good or ill
   about you hardly matters, so long as they are talking about you. ...
   Proclaim your love for spankiong and you will be admired, celebrated,
   invited everywhere.

Eva Lindt, about herself:
The gossip queen, the sultana of scandal.
La Lindt, they call me on television, where every Friday at ten I offer a
view of my plunging neckline and spicy anecdotes I deliver through my
sensual lips.

Trains lend themselves to encounters.  Especially on long trips.

I was wearing a scoop-neck T-shirt and the suede miniskirt that always
inspires men to confide in me.  I have this way of letting it creep up my
thighs that makes them say more than they meant to.

He reached to take the notebook back from me, and despite myself I stared at
his hands.  Large and rough, with diaphanous, almost fragile palms.  Hands
meant to slap and to strioke...



she walked slowly, lifting like sacred goblets each fleshy protuberance at
the base of her pelvis in turn.

Too much beauty is chilling.  You admire it without wishing to touch.
who has ever dreamed of making love to the Gioconda? [p.40]

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