French brothels in the 1890s! In graphic scenes celebrating the discovery of young love, Memoirs of a Rakehell tells the true story of the immortal French poet, Guillaume Apollinaire's sexual adventures among the women of Paris in the days before the First World War. As author and scholar Michael Perkins writes of this world-recognized masterpiece of erotica, in The Secret Record: The Story of Modern Erotic Literature: "As the boy learns about sex from spying on his sister and timidly attempting to seduce the family maid, an atmosphere of highly charged adolescent sexuality is slowly developed. Although obscenities are used freely, there is something sweetly innocent about the novelist's fanciful imagery in describing sexual acts. Memoirs of a Young Rakehell attempts through a softer, more sensuous approach to seduce the reader into not only accepting the author's depiction of sexuality as an accurate reflection of the reader's own sexuality, but to entertain and stimulate as well." Here is an unforgettable work, as frank and excitingly written as any work of fiction--and every searing page is true. A must-read classic of erotic literature