Belle Sauvage

by Richard Manton

Captain Prince and Susan Webb, a proud beauty of Charleston society, are rivals for Monnelia, the plantation's belle sauvage. A gentler girl, Tania, attempts to free a pretty Eurasian slave and tastes vengeance from the master's whip. Behind the shuttered windows of the plantation house, white maidservants toil under a different sort of slavery, and in one hot summer of repression, they are all drawn together.

Paperback

First published August 19, 1998

About the author

The pseudonym Richard Manton first appeared in print in the early 1980's on spanking stories published in Janus Magazine. Shortly after in 1982 Grove Press began issuing the Grove Press Victorian Library, many of which were authored by Manton.

The most marked characteristic of Manton's work is that he used the same female characters repeatedly in different novels, no matter the setting or situation, e.g., Elaine Cox, Cara Jolly, Noreen. It is this use of the same female characters that has lead researchers to believe that the author behind the Manton name is Donald Thomas.

In the mid 1970's Thomas wrote several crime novels under the name Francis Selwyn. While these are not erotica, several of Manton's characters appear in them with the exact same names and characteristics as in the Manton books. There are some instances of corporal punishment in the novels as well.