Product Description: Alphrodite is a masterpiece of French 19th century literature. This classical tale of sensuous love was one of the best-selling novels of its time. Published in 1896, Aphrodite made Pierre Louys famous and was by far his greatest success, surpassing that of his other well-know works such as The Songs of Bilitis. Conceived as a novel of the antiquity focusing on women and on light, Aphrodite lends itself naturally to illustration.
Book One, illustrated by Milo Manara - The story takes place in Alexandria in the 1st Century BC where Demetrios, a renowned artist falls in love with a courtesan, Chrysis. She asks him to prove his love to her by committing three crimes and Demetrios agrees. In this volume, Manara lets his imagination run wild as he illustrates a part of this novel.
WARNING! My copy of this book has a serious problem in pagination. The publisher messed up the order of pages 17 to 32, making this section impossible to read. Fortunately, I have the original text from which this was taken and can help you identify if you have a problem copy (I don't know if all copies were published with this problem) and tell you the proper order of the pages.
The first sixteen pages are alright and page 17 is a full color plate. Turn to page 18. If it starts with the words:
"She walked on following the street."
your copy is defective.
To read the text of a copy with this defect in its original order, read it as follows: pp. 1-16, 30, 26, 20-25, 19, 29, 18, 32-62.
The pages between 16 and 32 not listed are full page illustrations.
NOTE that this is a review of the defective copies and only deals with the defect, not the content of the work. Now that I can read it in its proper order, I will also write a review of the content that will be submitted to Amazon later.
Sensual & Romantic Historic Fiction Sumptuously Illustrated Humanoids is a French publisher and they have taken a 19th century erotic novel by Pierre Louys and divided it into four Books, each illustrated by a different artist.
In Book One Demetrios, a famous sculptor of ancient Alexandria, met and was smitten by Chrysis, a temple prostitute he met. She challenges him to commit three specific crimes to win her love. As he ponders the situation the next day, we see him struggle between his emotions and his reason as he faces his challenging tasks. The overpowering desire is strong and he seeks to understand its hold over him.
In Book Two the illustrator is Georges Bess. He is an excellent choice and his eighteen full-page color illustrations are exceptional at setting the mood for the sensual nature of the text. All are of women in various stages of arousal and done in shades of red and saffron. Unlike Manara?s illustrations for Book One most of these do not illustrate particular scenes in the book, but rather illustrate the time period and the costume of ancient Alexandria.
Louys? writing in this English translation from the 1920s captures well the pagan sensuality he wants to portray. The Bess illustrations compliment the text and make this volume of the series a success.
Beautifully rendered take on Shaw's Pygmalion When I first opened the book, I was caught into the lyricism and straight-forwardness. It's a fascinating story of a well-known and highly in demand courtesan who aims to seduce a sculptor. The sculptor falls for her and aims to please her, but once she is his, she falls into the shadow of his beloved statue. The story of sumptious, and I finished it in two days. It isn't for everyone, but for anyone interested, it is an excellent read.
Beautiful, but expensive This book is beautiful in many ways, but is disappointing at times. The combination of Louys' text and Manara's art is a sure winner. Originally published in France with the original French text, this English version chooses an anonymous, but wonderful, translation from the 1920's. Following a long tradition of publishing this work with sensuous illustrations, the publisher has come up with a new approach. They will publish an original one volume novel in four volumes and illustrate each with the work of a different artist. This first volume contains 15 full-page watercolors by Milo Manara, an artist better known for his adult comics. Those expecting Manara to have converted Louys' sensual story into a graphic novel may be surprised that this is not the case. Where Manara shines as a comic artist, his watercolors are uneven. While some are outstanding, the painting of the statue of Aphrodite is a disappointment. The illustrated binding and layout is sumptuous... This promises to be a beautiful set with Georges Bess and Wendling slated to illustrate volumes 2 and 3. It is wonderful to see Louys' work getting this lavish treatment. The text is still vibrant enough to take on the sensual artwork of these modern artists....
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