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Syta’s Harem and Pharaoh’s Lover
Presented here, for the first time in English, in fabulous translations by Brian Stableford, are two exotic novels by Jane La Vaudère, one of France’s most interesting, and most Decadent, writers.
In the first, Syta’s Harem, we are taken to a proto-anthropological India, to an ancient kingdom which is ruled by Princess Syta, a beautiful woman idolized by the members of her male harem who she exercises tyrannical authority over. The novel soon becomes a surreal phantasmagoria, featuring religiously-impelled orgies, bloody sacrifices, and mysterious fakirs. The second novel, Pharaoh’s Lover, placed in ancient Egypt during the Third Empire of Thutmose I, is a bizarre masterpiece of the highest order. In it the reader learns of the misadventures of Zelinis and Hary-Thé, who, in the aftermath of the sudden loss of their perfect amour, become the subject of rather eccentric liaisons—Zelinis, as a slave, is made to be a stimulant to the effete Pharaoh by engaging in romance with the latter’s sister, while Hary-Thé carries on a quasi-necrophlic relationship with a mummy.
These two supernatural fantasies, in the feverish pitch of their narratives and the voluptuousness of their settings, are sure to delight and entertain all those who have sympathy for unusual expressions of passionate distress”.
Limited to 70 copies.
In the first, Syta’s Harem, we are taken to a proto-anthropological India, to an ancient kingdom which is ruled by Princess Syta, a beautiful woman idolized by the members of her male harem who she exercises tyrannical authority over. The novel soon becomes a surreal phantasmagoria, featuring religiously-impelled orgies, bloody sacrifices, and mysterious fakirs. The second novel, Pharaoh’s Lover, placed in ancient Egypt during the Third Empire of Thutmose I, is a bizarre masterpiece of the highest order. In it the reader learns of the misadventures of Zelinis and Hary-Thé, who, in the aftermath of the sudden loss of their perfect amour, become the subject of rather eccentric liaisons—Zelinis, as a slave, is made to be a stimulant to the effete Pharaoh by engaging in romance with the latter’s sister, while Hary-Thé carries on a quasi-necrophlic relationship with a mummy.
These two supernatural fantasies, in the feverish pitch of their narratives and the voluptuousness of their settings, are sure to delight and entertain all those who have sympathy for unusual expressions of passionate distress”.
Limited to 70 copies.
272 pages, Paperback
Published June 30, 2020
About the author
Jane de la Vaudère
44 books20 followersJane de la Vaudère was the pen name of Jeanne Scrive, a French novelist, poet and playwright who was born April 15, 1857, in Paris, and died on July 26, 1908. Her father was a famous doctor, Gaspard-Léonard Scrive, Surgeon-General of the French Army during the Crimean War. She is considered by contemporary critics a participant in the Decadent movement and Naturalism.
Her poetic works include Les Heures perdues, L'Eternelle chanson, Minuit, and Evocation. She is also remembered for a collection of decadent novels and short stories, such as Les Androgynes (1903), Les Demi-Sexes (1897), or Les Sataniques (1897) — probably her masterpiece. She wrote exotic novels as well, including Les Courtisanes de Brahma, La Porte de Félicité or La Gueisha amoureuse.
She collaborated with the Théâtre du Grand Guignol.
Her poetic works include Les Heures perdues, L'Eternelle chanson, Minuit, and Evocation. She is also remembered for a collection of decadent novels and short stories, such as Les Androgynes (1903), Les Demi-Sexes (1897), or Les Sataniques (1897) — probably her masterpiece. She wrote exotic novels as well, including Les Courtisanes de Brahma, La Porte de Félicité or La Gueisha amoureuse.
She collaborated with the Théâtre du Grand Guignol.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
March 6, 2026
I enjoyed this more than the last couplet of Vaudere novellas I read. Syta's Harem was a quasi-satire about matriarchy with some truly weird astral tantric sex happenings, while Pharoah's Lover actually had a happy ending (and not just in the metaphorical sense lol).
Displaying 1 of 1 review