L'heure sexuelle : roman

"Bacchus; or, wine to-day and to-morrow" by P. Morton Shand is a nonfiction study of wine written in the early 20th century. It likely explores the culture, production, appreciation, and future of wine, connecting historical traditions with contemporary tastes and prospects. The opening of the provided narrative follows an insomniac writer who, at a feverish hour in a fog-laden Paris, fixates on visions of Cleopatra and then on a streetwalker whose jeweled black bodice and mesmerizing eyes evoke that queen. He accompanies her to a shabby room but, obsessed with her eyes rather than the act, refuses sex; she pointedly sends him away, hinting at illness. The next day he sends her ivory-white roses and learns she has been taken to a hospital, which he accepts with a mix of relief and strange exultation. The story then shifts to his parallel affairs: a disciplined, respectable pianist (Thilde) and a flighty, married coquette (Julia), contrasting “natural” and “spirited” roses as emblems of how he parcels out love and wit. A later scene places him among male friends debating art, women, and passion as creative fuel, before Julia bursts into the all-male evening, causing awkwardness and exposing his fraying patience. (This is an automatically generated summary.)