Dictionnaire Érotique Moderne

First published in 1864, this pioneering lexicon represents Alfred Delvau's quixotic attempt to document the entire erotic vocabulary of mid-19th century Paris. Long before any serious scholar would touch the subject, Delvau compiled thousands of terms, phrases, and expressions related to love, desire, and intimacy that standard dictionaries deemed too scandalous to include. The work reads less like a dry reference text and more like a tour through the hidden linguistic world of bohemian Paris: its cafés, its brothels, its working-class neighborhoods where the most colorful and unexpurgated French was truly spoken. Delvau wrote with scholarly precision and genuine wit, insisting that sexual language deserved the same rigorous lexicographical treatment as any other domain of human experience. The book proved immediately controversial: Delvau was brought to trial, fined heavily, and every available copy was destroyed. Only later printings survived to become a vital resource for historians studying Victorian sexuality and the evolution of French vernacular. This is essential reading for anyone interested in the gap between what people actually said and what dictionaries dared to record.