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Ermyntrude and Esmeralda: A Naughty Novella
Ermyntrude and Esmeralda was written as an exchange of correspondence between two teenage girls who have pledged themselves to find out all they can about sex, love, and making babies. Their reported discoveries include a passionate love affair between Esmeralda's younger brother and his male tutor ("Will they have babies? If not, why not?"); Ermyntrude's affair with a handsome footman on a staircase; the attempted seduction of Ermyntrude by her governess.
By using nursery terms for private parts of the anatomy (bow-wows and pussy cats will never sound the same), Strachey makes all the more ludicrous society's standard reaction of horror to sex and deviation.
Wit, irony, exaggeration, melodrama, these were Lytton Strachey's methods in this recently discovered and never before published novella. It is when Strachey is not humorous that the reader should beware of taking him seriously. In Ermyntrude and Esmeralda he is extremely amusing, but he was seeking more than mere enjoyment for his readers; he was seeking sexual enlightenment and toleration in a period that was hostile to the pleasures of the flesh, or at least hypocritical about them.
--From the 1969 edition.
By using nursery terms for private parts of the anatomy (bow-wows and pussy cats will never sound the same), Strachey makes all the more ludicrous society's standard reaction of horror to sex and deviation.
Wit, irony, exaggeration, melodrama, these were Lytton Strachey's methods in this recently discovered and never before published novella. It is when Strachey is not humorous that the reader should beware of taking him seriously. In Ermyntrude and Esmeralda he is extremely amusing, but he was seeking more than mere enjoyment for his readers; he was seeking sexual enlightenment and toleration in a period that was hostile to the pleasures of the flesh, or at least hypocritical about them.
--From the 1969 edition.
- GenresClassics
75 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1969
About the author
Lytton Strachey
52 books54 followersGiles 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.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
July 17, 2012
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!
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!
April 23, 2013
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.
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.
August 8, 2011
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.
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.
January 28, 2019
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
February 2, 2020
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.
November 10, 2022
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.
May 16, 2022
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!
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!
July 18, 2023
Nunca pensé que se iba a poner a hablar sobre los homosexuales 😭
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June 10, 2024Quién diría que un libro de 1969 apoyara la homosexualidad
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews