|  |  | Originally published anonymously in 1725, and here presented in a fresh 
        translation by Brian Stableford, The Temple of Gnide is Montesquieu's 
        illicit smash hit from the Age of Enlightenment. The author, whose works 
        were all placed on the Index Prohibitorum by the Church, making it a sin 
        to read them, or even to know of their existence, composed this short 
        novel, or long prose poem, as an attempt to explore the psychological 
        operation of the sexual impulse, and to raise the question of how the 
        social management of that impulse might best be organized.  The Temple of Gnide is not only a symbolization of lust and its 
        psychological and social accommodation, but a symbolization of the narrativization 
        of the erotic, a story that is as much about story construction as it 
        is about the substance of the story being told, and for sophisticated 
        readers, that adds an extra dimension of depth to the narrative. 
 Published by Snuggly Books in May 2022ISBN: 978-1-64525-096-8
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