Introduction
"The Flesh Peddlers" was the first novel of the young American author Douglas Gordon. He had gone to Paris to achieve perfect freedom in literary subject matter and its frankness of presentation. The De Gaulle government surprised him by banning "The Flesh Peddlers" as an "immoral work" and he promptly emigrated to the Balearic islands in disgust at the official censorship his book encountered. Collectors of erotica however, bought up sufficient copies of this unusual novel to insure its eventual presentation to a wider public.
No matter how unusual, oversexed or perverted the characters so vividly shown in this novel may seem, current sexual thinking has nowadays changed to such an extent, that the sex orgies depicted herein are scarcely as shocking as they must have seemed just a short time ago. Certain aspects of perversion touched upon in "The Flesh Peddlers" prove baffling even to psychiatrists.
The famous psychiatrist A. Sandor has an interesting statement in this regard: "Contrary to what so many people believe, the average homosexual is not an effeminate "fairy." Nor is the "fairy" necessarily a homosexual. The "fairy" as I have seen him in my office is of the polymorphous perverse type-like a child he can lend himself to any sexual activity. If a homosexual gets hold of him, he readily becomes homosexual; if a sadist gets hold of him he will lend himself to masochistic acts. "Fairies" are just sexual weaklings, but not necessarily homosexuals. The true homosexuals I have met in my office are from the most active walks of life and their general attitude and manner had no femininity about it.
"So-called "fairies" can even lead normal sex lives. I was consulted by a very effeminate looking "fairy". He told me that his problem was that he was constantly annoyed by homosexuals who tried to "make" him. He wanted me to give him glandular treatment to change his voice and make him seem more masculine. When I asked him the usual questions for my case record I found, to my amazement, that he was married and had three children.
"On the other hand, the true homosexual always craves a feminine object with male genitals. I may add that homosexuality is a very prevalent sexual deviation...."
The reader will find a tantalizing puzzle in the true sexual desires of the orgy participants in this compelling novel of free-wheeling sex.
Continental Classics presents for the first time in this country a truly extraordinary erotic novel of the "new wave" of writers. Due to the clinical subject matter this book is recommended only for the mature adult reader.
Allan Saunders, M.A. New York City February, 1968