Ermyntrude and Esmeralda: an entertainment,

by Lytton Strachey

Hardcover. Very good condition. With an introduction by Michael Holroyd. One-two centimetre tear on upper edge of rear jacket. Slight wear on spine ends of dust jacket. Very small nick on rear pastedown hinge. Pages are clean, and the text and illustrations are clear. AF

48 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1969

About the author

Giles Lytton Strachey was a British writer and critic. He is best known for establishing a new form of biography in which psychological insight and sympathy are combined with irreverence and wit. His 1921 biography Queen Victoria was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize.

Reviews

[Paul Bryant · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is at the same time the shortest, silliest and coolest book I own. I just read it yesterday.

Short? - some of my reviews are longer than this book. It says 74 pages but half of them are full page Este cartoons.

Silly? - Here's Lytton Strachey regaling us with a series of letters by two sexually curious 17 year old ladies from la belle epoque who refer to the male and female private parts in such coy terms that I could hear toes curling from a hundred yards away, and the toes were on feet belonging to people who weren't reading this book. It was like nuclear fallout. I have to visit a chiropodist now to get my own toes professionally uncurled.

Cool? - A first edition hardback from 1969 sent by a Goodreads friend from across the Atlantic with a handwritten note in it. I'll say cool!

[Vittorio Ducoli · Rating 3 out of 5]

La scoperta del sesso nella Gran Bretagna vittoriana

Piccolo, divertente racconto epistolare sul tema della scoperta del sesso. Due amiche diciassettenni, appartenenti all'upper class britannica di inizio novecento, si scrivono, descrivendo in modo molto analitico le loro prime esperienze di scoperta della sessualità. Viene presa in giro, nel tono leggero e a tratti comico usato dall'autore (omosessuale della cerchia di Virginia Woolf) l'ipocrisia della società (di allora??) rispetto al tema. Bella l'edizione, corredata da pudiche illustrazioni finto liberty.

[Kate · Rating 2 out of 5]

I obtained a copy of this book out of curiosity, just to see what sort of pornography an historian would produce. A curiosity is what it is: a slender volume, quickly perused, it includes homosexuality, seduction-by-servants-of-all-ages-and-both-genders, and giddy, girlish curiosity. (As imagined by a middle-aged homosexual, mind you.)

Perhaps it would be best enjoyed at tea, when read aloud in the falsetto voice of its author.

An added pleasure to the copy I obtained (published by Stein & Day, 1969)was illustrations by Erte. Charming and very stylish.

[Maryann Zulueta · Rating 3 out of 5]

it is a lark but also a sad commentary of staid victorian attitudes about sex, and ertes illusrations illuminate the humor distracting from lurking hypocrites(written by dianne not by maryann).Uni

[Iris Sánchez Izquierdo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Define Dámaso López en el prólogo del libro (y que recomiendo leerse al final dado que destripa la historia‼️) a Ermyntrude y Espermeralda como una “Curiosa novelita que parodia el género de la literatura libertina francesa”🎩👒

Una sátira sobre la educación femenina victoriana en formato de novela epistolar que protagonizan dos jóvenes amigas de clase alta que dan sus nombres propios título a la obra.

[Sandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un libro absurdo, ridículo, divertido y frívolo que a pesar de lo corto hace una crítica muy puntual y acertada a la moral y conductas hipócritas de la sociedad, algo qué definitivamente no esperaría de está historia, me sorprendió mucho.

[History Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

A funny epistolary about two 17-year-old girls who have pledged themselves to find out all they can about sex. (Strachey dedicated the book to Henry Lamb with whom he was in love at the time.) It doesn’t appear he wrote any other fiction. Too bad. This was clever and funny.

[Pretty Little Bibliophile · Rating 4 out of 5]

Epistolary format
Two girls growing up in 19th century Europe and coming to terms with sexuality, both their own as well as human sexuality in general.
Very short and has some illustrations too!

[María Liz Mosquea · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nunca pensé que se iba a poner a hablar sobre los homosexuales 😭

[Taned]

Quién diría que un libro de 1969 apoyara la homosexualidad