Introduction
Racquel De Courville, and her brilliant French author, and her first novel "Wised Up" achieved the distinction of being banned in Paris within a mere five days of publication. The book was re-published in London in a limited edition where it was snapped up by private collectors of erotica and has not been reprinted until the present in America.
In "Wise-Up" we have the feeling that everything we read comes from the depth of personal experience. Rarely has the sex-life and sexual maturing of a modern woman been described so graphically and with utter frankness down to the most intimate physical details. Indeed, it was the author's ultra-realistic portrayal of the sexual facts of life from a sophisticated European woman's point of view which resulted in the banning of the book. A ban, incidentally, which is still in effect in France today.
Freud's comments on the sexual maturation of women is most applicable to the case of the heroine of this frankest of novels.
He states: "Deviations from the sexual aim (which normally consist of genital union in the act of copulation) may take place in some of the components of the sex act itself such as, looking, touching, tasting, smelling, hearing. If these deviations are for some reason accentuated, they become an end in themselves. Normal agression may become sadism, penisenvy may become lesbianism. In some cases tranvestism also occurs where the woman insists on acting and dressing like a man.
"There is a case on record where one woman, a Dr. Walker, actually got Congress to pass an act allowing her to wear men's clothes. Another of my cases was a woman who walked around in riding breeches most of the time. She would even stuff a handkerchief in to the genital region to simulate the badge of the male organs. She also disdained urinating like a woman. She would always sit facing the wall, so that she could urinate like a man!"
Freud goes on to state that a person of one sex who strives to become like the other sex invariably develops into a misfit or a psychotic.
Miss De Courville's boldness in dealing with related problems of a maturing woman's psychosexual life has rarely been surpassed. Her keen ness of psychological insight will amaze the reader with a group of the sex obnormalities encountered in these modern times on every social level.
"Wised-Up" is another of the exceptional novels of the nex sexual revolution published for the first time in this country by Continental Classics. It is recommended only for the mature adult reader.
Allan Saunders, M.A. New York City February, 1968
Archive Note: The truly amazing number of misspellings in the original pocketbook are faithfully reproduced in this text. No attempt whatsoever has been made to correct the misspelled or misused words.