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Souvenirs d’une coureuse de rues, dite accrocheuse, par Lebrun.  Prix 60 centimes. 

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First and only edition of this salacious tale of a mother-daughter duo who seek to defraud men through seduction. 

Divided into twelve chapters, the story opens with the circumstances of the protagonist’s upbringing: Sarra (named for the siege of Saragossa) is the daughter of the Pomeranian Elisabeth von Schaffhause, raised in Louvain by Elisabeth and her three lovers.  When one perishes unexpectedly, Elisabeth devises a scheme to generate income for the family: she lures an unsuspecting gentleman home, only for one of her lovers (forewarned by Sarra) to declare himself Elisabeth’s husband and demand financial compensation.  By the age of fifteen, Sarra is directly involved in her mother’s plans, this time arranging for her mother to discover her in a man’s company and threaten to go to the police for accosting her daughter if not adequately paid. 

Little is known about Lebrun, although he appears to have been a prolific author of erotic pamphlets (seventeen are advertised on the rear wrapper): ‘In L’Enfer there is a whole series of these little pamphlets published for peddling; they are unlicensed trivialities, boring to read, badly written, and of no interest whatsoever, but with a promising title.  Judging by the number of works by this Lebrun that have wrongly been given the honours of L’Enfer, and by the number of those advertised in the Catalogues printed on the back cover, he must have committed nearly fifty silly deeds of this kind!’ (Apollinaire IV 347 trans.). 

OCLC finds two copies only (BnF, BL).  Apollinaire IV 359; Pia II, col. 1262; Rose 2531. 

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