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Gerard & Jacques #1
Gerard & Jacques, Volume 1
As far as romantic first encounters go, meeting in a high-class brothel isn't typical. Gerard becomes Jacques' first and last patron, when he buys freedom for the boy after sleeping with him. However, Gerard gives Jacques a challenge--can a spoiled child of the nobility survive on his own and earn his living without selling his body? Jacques rises to the challenge, and ends up as Gerard's houseboy, doing manual labor. Gradually he begins to see that Gerard is not quite the savage he first thought, but will this revelation lead to something more?
200 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2000
4 people are currently reading
253 people want to read
About the author
Fumi Yoshinaga
146 books247 followersJapanese: よしなが ふみ
Fumi Yoshinaga (よしなが ふみ Yoshinaga Fumi, born 1971) is a Japanese manga artist known for her shōjo and shōnen-ai works.
Fumi Yoshinaga was born in Tokyo, Japan in 1971. She attended the prestigious Keio University in Tokyo.
In an interview, she said that "I want to show the people who didn't win, whose dreams didn't come true. It is not possible for everybody to get first prize. I want my readers to understand the happiness that people can get from trying hard, going through the process, and getting frustrated."
Little is known about her personal life. She mentions that her favourite operas are those by Mozart in the author's note of Solfege.
She debuted in 1994 with The Moon and the Sandals, serialized in Hanaoto magazine, but was previously a participant in comic markets.
Of Yoshinaga's many works, several have been licensed internationally. She was also selected and exhibited as one of the "Twenty Major Manga artist Who Contributed to the World of Shōjo Manga (World War II to Present)" for Professor Masami Toku's exhibition, "Shōjo Manga: Girl Power!" at CSU-Chico.
Outside of her work with Japanese publishers, she also self-publishes original doujinshi on a regular basis, most notably for Antique Bakery. Yoshinaga has also drawn fan parodies of Slam Dunk, Rose of Versailles, and Legend of Galactic Heroes.
Fumi Yoshinaga (よしなが ふみ Yoshinaga Fumi, born 1971) is a Japanese manga artist known for her shōjo and shōnen-ai works.
Fumi Yoshinaga was born in Tokyo, Japan in 1971. She attended the prestigious Keio University in Tokyo.
In an interview, she said that "I want to show the people who didn't win, whose dreams didn't come true. It is not possible for everybody to get first prize. I want my readers to understand the happiness that people can get from trying hard, going through the process, and getting frustrated."
Little is known about her personal life. She mentions that her favourite operas are those by Mozart in the author's note of Solfege.
She debuted in 1994 with The Moon and the Sandals, serialized in Hanaoto magazine, but was previously a participant in comic markets.
Of Yoshinaga's many works, several have been licensed internationally. She was also selected and exhibited as one of the "Twenty Major Manga artist Who Contributed to the World of Shōjo Manga (World War II to Present)" for Professor Masami Toku's exhibition, "Shōjo Manga: Girl Power!" at CSU-Chico.
Outside of her work with Japanese publishers, she also self-publishes original doujinshi on a regular basis, most notably for Antique Bakery. Yoshinaga has also drawn fan parodies of Slam Dunk, Rose of Versailles, and Legend of Galactic Heroes.
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
June 9, 2010
Set in the years around the French Revolution, Gerard and Jacques is a story we’ve all seen before – Jacques is a young man sold into prostitution for whatever reason and comes across Gerard, a man who takes him away from all this (not before raping him, though; this is yaoi after all). “Unlikely” isn’t exactly a word I’d have used either, I’ve read so many books where brothels are involved.
Gerard wants to humiliate Jacques, to make him realise that he might as well be a whore, because he’s of no use—as an ex-aristocrat—for anything else. The boy surprises him by working hard around the house.
Jacques had my admiration for battling on with his chores, until it transpired that he’d learned to shoe horses after just being shown once. Hmmm. I’m not looking for a huge amount of realism in yaoi novels but this really annoyed me. I’m forced to admit that there are aspects of manga that I really don’t like, such as the cartoony faces of surprise like this—I know there’s probably a huge tradition behind this, and it’s what the readers like and expect, but as a grown adult who has jumped from childhood comics to graphic novels with an interim of many decades, I can’t acclimatise to it, and it pulls me from the more realistic drawings that the rest of the novel is drawn in.
I also don’t like the words to describe the actions. If the pictures are drawn well enough, and they are, I don’t need the words “JERK UP!” or “STARTLE!”to describe action.
There’s no real story here, though, in volume one. It’s a little plot, interspersed with backstory, mainly relating to Gerard who was married once.
I’m not enamoured of the homosexual image either – as expected Jacques, being the uke, is unwilling and resentful of his new master. He finds the advances distasteful but in secret he feels a sexual attraction growing – this is expected in the genre, I suppose. However as Gerard’s backstory emerges we find that he was pretty much hetero, but was “lured into m/f/m” by his “evil wife.” When the other man makes advances to Gerard on his own, Gerard rejects these advances calling them filthy.
The sex scenes are a little more explicit than I’ve seen in other yaoi-almost accurate cocks and such like.
There were interesting sections—discussions of politics, literature and philosophy – and I’d have liked a bit more politics and a bit more plot but then that’s probably just me.
Volume 02 was marginally more interesting, but rather repetitive and dull in parts, whole pages of just the same expression, or so it seemed to me, and the plot jumped all over the place which made it very confusing.
I did like the drawing in the main (apart from the aforementioned funny faces) the period clothes were beautifully done, although I’m no expert, and there were touches of humour that really made me smile but all in all the whole angst angst he raped me no no no no oh maybe angst maybe i love him angst angst thing just wasn’t for me. I just think I’m not a natural yaoi reader, I’m afraid.
Gerard wants to humiliate Jacques, to make him realise that he might as well be a whore, because he’s of no use—as an ex-aristocrat—for anything else. The boy surprises him by working hard around the house.
Jacques had my admiration for battling on with his chores, until it transpired that he’d learned to shoe horses after just being shown once. Hmmm. I’m not looking for a huge amount of realism in yaoi novels but this really annoyed me. I’m forced to admit that there are aspects of manga that I really don’t like, such as the cartoony faces of surprise like this—I know there’s probably a huge tradition behind this, and it’s what the readers like and expect, but as a grown adult who has jumped from childhood comics to graphic novels with an interim of many decades, I can’t acclimatise to it, and it pulls me from the more realistic drawings that the rest of the novel is drawn in.
I also don’t like the words to describe the actions. If the pictures are drawn well enough, and they are, I don’t need the words “JERK UP!” or “STARTLE!”to describe action.
There’s no real story here, though, in volume one. It’s a little plot, interspersed with backstory, mainly relating to Gerard who was married once.
I’m not enamoured of the homosexual image either – as expected Jacques, being the uke, is unwilling and resentful of his new master. He finds the advances distasteful but in secret he feels a sexual attraction growing – this is expected in the genre, I suppose. However as Gerard’s backstory emerges we find that he was pretty much hetero, but was “lured into m/f/m” by his “evil wife.” When the other man makes advances to Gerard on his own, Gerard rejects these advances calling them filthy.
The sex scenes are a little more explicit than I’ve seen in other yaoi-almost accurate cocks and such like.
There were interesting sections—discussions of politics, literature and philosophy – and I’d have liked a bit more politics and a bit more plot but then that’s probably just me.
Volume 02 was marginally more interesting, but rather repetitive and dull in parts, whole pages of just the same expression, or so it seemed to me, and the plot jumped all over the place which made it very confusing.
I did like the drawing in the main (apart from the aforementioned funny faces) the period clothes were beautifully done, although I’m no expert, and there were touches of humour that really made me smile but all in all the whole angst angst he raped me no no no no oh maybe angst maybe i love him angst angst thing just wasn’t for me. I just think I’m not a natural yaoi reader, I’m afraid.
November 15, 2011
So, do you like your porn mixed with a history lesson? If you pick this book up you will get involved in French politics and the unstable mob ruled times after the French Revolution. As this time is very anti aristocractic, it is not a safe time for dear cute little 16 year old Jacques who has been sold to a brothel to cover his father's gambling debts. Enter Gerard, a beautiful jaded and scarred young self made gentlement, who proceeds to deflower the youth after a scathing reproach on the values of the aristocracy. Afterwards, Gerard pays the debt and tell Jacques he's free fully expecting the boy to wrap himself in his pride and die of hunger. Instead a much chastised Jacques showes up looking for work not knowing it's Gerard's mansion much to Gerard's amusement. Jacques is hired and Gerard starts to see that there might be some redeemable qualtities in him even though he is a blue blood.
Much of Gerard's disregard for the artisocacy is due to his wife and her lover. Like a fool he fell in love while she continued her bed hopping ways. A child was conceived but then he was told it was still born only to find out later his wife had sent it away because it looked liker black haired lover than her husband. Gerard attacks her and she takes a poker to his face leaving the long scar.
Much of Gerard's disregard for the artisocacy is due to his wife and her lover. Like a fool he fell in love while she continued her bed hopping ways. A child was conceived but then he was told it was still born only to find out later his wife had sent it away because it looked liker black haired lover than her husband. Gerard attacks her and she takes a poker to his face leaving the long scar.
August 23, 2011
ewwwwwww..something....something is off.......could it be coercive sex? prostitution
Where's my Lenin cat at? Here it is. Down with Aristocrats!!!
Where's my Lenin cat at? Here it is. Down with Aristocrats!!!
December 30, 2018
'Tis the season for reading the problematic classics of yesteryear! I did not realize that this manga opens with Our Proletariat Hero raping a teenager in a brothel on the basis of the argument "as an aristocrat, you deserve to have this happen to you" and subsequently "redeeming" himself (YOU STILL RAPED A TEENAGER) by buying his freedom for him. So, uh. That's the set-up, and you should be forewarned about it. The rest of the volume is actually pretty sweet, with young Jacques growing up into a responsible servant in Gerard's household and experiencing a sexual awakening to which Gerard is comically oblivious, and several chapters of Gerard's tragic backstory (NOT AN EXCUSE FOR RAPING A TEENAGER), i.e. the reason he hates the aristocracy so much. The art is very much in Yoshinaga-sensei's typical style, which can take a little getting used to but is very expressive, and the costumes (France just before the Revolution) are great.
May 22, 2021
Questa sera mi sono riletta questa miniserie di Fumi Yoshinaga e ogni volta che la rileggo la amo sempre di più.
Trovo che la sensei sia un delle autrici più versatili che abbia mai incontrato, ha saputo creare una storia bilancianso benissimo elementi di finzione (i personaggi e le loro dinamiche) collocandoli in un contesto reale (la rivoluzione francese) gestendo in modo magistrale il tutto.
Spero che prima o poi qualche casa editrice italiana si degni di portare altre opere di questa bravissima autrice.
Trovo che la sensei sia un delle autrici più versatili che abbia mai incontrato, ha saputo creare una storia bilancianso benissimo elementi di finzione (i personaggi e le loro dinamiche) collocandoli in un contesto reale (la rivoluzione francese) gestendo in modo magistrale il tutto.
Spero che prima o poi qualche casa editrice italiana si degni di portare altre opere di questa bravissima autrice.
June 25, 2021
okay so kind of weird, but interesting? It moves at such a weird pace and the way they talk so bluntly is comical. Although, I don’t like how rudely they use the words whore and prostitute or how rude Gerard is to the sex workers. But I really liked reading Gerard’s backstory. Did not expect to get sad reading this, but I think it had a pretty good emotional impact considering. Nothing’s really progressed romantically between the two mcs in my opinion, but I’m interested in picking up the next one to see how things go.
August 12, 2019
I really love the art style and I found myself dying from laughter multiple times. I appreciate how the story intertwines with historical events that happened in France. A+ history lesson.
October 31, 2021
"It is provincial and foolish to love your own wife."
December 28, 2022
Classic yaoi. A real blast from the past
July 24, 2015
First thing is first...the art is minimal, they really put no effort or time into this. The visuals are bare bones, you see the characters and if nothing else is relevant it is just not there. The fabrics have no pattern, there are no backgrounds, no world is created here. it's just white walls and people.
okay now..i read this knowing it was smut and i didn't expect anything amazing from it but really it is so threadbare, not a single character is that interesting and nor do they have much personality. I went into this thinking there would be more cat and mouse between the two male leads and much more hate sex...nope.
What I will say for it though is that Gerard's backstory is pretty interesting, not something i expected (though parts of it didn't make sense to me honestly) at all and the story so far is laying the groundwork for a class struggle though with the young aristocrat having been introduced to at the time radical ideas about society and what not and the prevailing class-ism in all the characters so maybe something will happen. Overall though this is pretty boring.
okay now..i read this knowing it was smut and i didn't expect anything amazing from it but really it is so threadbare, not a single character is that interesting and nor do they have much personality. I went into this thinking there would be more cat and mouse between the two male leads and much more hate sex...nope.
What I will say for it though is that Gerard's backstory is pretty interesting, not something i expected (though parts of it didn't make sense to me honestly) at all and the story so far is laying the groundwork for a class struggle though with the young aristocrat having been introduced to at the time radical ideas about society and what not and the prevailing class-ism in all the characters so maybe something will happen. Overall though this is pretty boring.
February 17, 2016
1st volume of a two part Master/Servant romance set just before the French Revolution.
Scarred Gerard meets aristocrat virgin Jacques in a brothel after his father has sold him to pay off debts. Gerard seduces him and then pays for his freedom. With nowhere else to go Jacques ends up working for Gerard and finds that his new master isn't nearly as brutish as he first thought. Years pass and Jacques becomes an indespensible servant hopelessly in love with his master who won't touch him now that he works for him. The second half gives us some of Gerard's past with his capricious wife and shows how he got his scar. Reminded me a little of Vanity Fair.
Not my favourite artwork, but a good story. Fans of this might also want to check out M.J Pearson's novel The Price of Temptation which has a similar master/servant concept.
Scarred Gerard meets aristocrat virgin Jacques in a brothel after his father has sold him to pay off debts. Gerard seduces him and then pays for his freedom. With nowhere else to go Jacques ends up working for Gerard and finds that his new master isn't nearly as brutish as he first thought. Years pass and Jacques becomes an indespensible servant hopelessly in love with his master who won't touch him now that he works for him. The second half gives us some of Gerard's past with his capricious wife and shows how he got his scar. Reminded me a little of Vanity Fair.
Not my favourite artwork, but a good story. Fans of this might also want to check out M.J Pearson's novel The Price of Temptation which has a similar master/servant concept.
December 8, 2013
Fumi Yoshinaga has the ability to turn the campiest of stories, settings and concepts into sharp, unique reading experiences. With “Gerard & Jacques” She depicts the odd relationship between a nobleman and a male prostitute.
Set soon after the great revolution, this book manages to be delightfully quirky and cheeky in just the right way. It may not be the most substantial of stories but it’s charged with playfulness, energy and also a slight laconic taste of social commentary. Looking forward to volume 2.
Set soon after the great revolution, this book manages to be delightfully quirky and cheeky in just the right way. It may not be the most substantial of stories but it’s charged with playfulness, energy and also a slight laconic taste of social commentary. Looking forward to volume 2.
January 4, 2010
Nophoto-f-25x33 I think this book was wonderful. When it starts Gerard strives you as a creep and a pervert but as you read along you begin to understand that he's just damaged. Jacques seems innocent to me and as the story goes on you realize that he truly is purely innocent. Afterall, what 29 year old doesn't have sex or masturbate? Wow. All in all it was a pretty amazing read.
January 14, 2008
Wonderful French-historical manga. The storyline is somewhat but not entirely predictable, the art is lovely, and the story between the title characters is both amusing and intriguing. Oh, and there's some very nice, fairly explicit sex scenes also.
February 15, 2012
I like yaoi mangas however I really don’t like that in this genre the sexual violence (rape) is quite often (99,5%) trivialised.
“Gerard and Jacques” is good example of it.
The most in this story I enjoyed Gerard’s background story.
“Gerard and Jacques” is good example of it.
The most in this story I enjoyed Gerard’s background story.
March 11, 2012
I didn't like this manga very much. I didn't like how it played out like a rather cheesy romance novel with sex scenes liberally tossed in. It felt like the author was trying to hard with a flimsy plot.
April 3, 2014
This is a Yaoi novel, a romance between men, written by women, for women. This one is set against the backdrop of the French Revolution. It might not be for everyone, but if it's your cup of tea, it's quite well done. Check my full review: Gerard & Jacques
Want to read
August 17, 2007r sez cute but w/some of the typical boys-love uncomfort zone elements
July 29, 2007
This is probably my favorite manga ever. Great historical detail, wonderfully developed characters and an engaing romance!
September 9, 2008
meh, a little slow, but okay. very graphic illustrations.
January 5, 2009
I don't like pacing, but the details pay it off.
February 1, 2011
Hezká, něžná vztahovka, na nic si nehraje a nabízí krásně realistické hrdiny.
June 16, 2013
Man did the time-skips throw me off at first. One of those few yaois you gotta re-read to fully appreciate. You've done it again, Fumi Yoshinaga. Making yaoi into a fucking experimental experience.
January 22, 2014
Another rating: 9/10 (whole series)
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews