The Snuggly Satyricon - France Anatole

How many people, over the centuries, must have read the famous Satyricon attributed to Titus Petronius, more commonly known as Petronius Arbiter, and then thrown it away in disgust, having observed that although it is clearly advertised by its title as a book of satyrs, it does not feature any—not, at least, in a literal sense?

Here, at any rate, in The Snuggly Satyricon, edited and translated from the French by Brian Stableford, is the first honest satyricon, featuring an entire chorus line of satyrs, fauns, aegipans and the Great God Pan himself—in whose divine image, of course, satyrs were made. Indeed, in the twenty Decadent tales and Symbolist fantasies in the present volume, the reader will be provided with satyrs of all sorts, some made of stone or wood, some of flesh and blood, and all of the most refined reverie.

Never marching to the beat of the charivari of conventional thought, The Snuggly Satyricon will be sure to make the reader cry “Io Pan!”