Adolphe Belot was the envy of his contemporaries Emile Zola and Gustave Flaubert: his books, unlike theirs, were best-sellers. He specialized in popular fiction that provided readers with just the right mix of salaciousness and propriety. (Under the initials A. B. he dispensed entirely with propriety.)
The sensational Mademoiselle Giraud, ma femme (published in 1870 with a preface by Zola) tells of the suffering of a naive young man whose new bride will not agree to consummate the marriage. Eventually he learns from an acquaintance, to his amazement, that their wives are...
Adolphe Belot was the envy of his contemporaries Emile Zola and Gustave Flaubert: his books, unlike theirs, were best-sellers. He specialized in po...
