Sweet sweat

More about the book

The only novel by early-20th-century Belgian artist Justine Frank, this erotic tale blends feminism, pornography, Judaism, and art. Its heroine, Rachel, takes up with the sybaritic Count Urdukas, and they set out together on an odyssey of pleasure and corruption, marked by bizarre events that are both hilarious and disturbing. This comprehensive new edition of Frank's 1931 novel, which has a cult following, includes an essay and an extensive biography of Frank by Israeli-American writer and artist Roee Rosen. Rosen uses reproductions of Frank's boldly sensual watercolors and a timeline of her short life to provide definitive analysis of this once-scandalous novel, and its historical and cultural contexts. In English; translated from the original French.