The Mysteries of Verbena House  

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A Scheme for abolishing all Words is one of the wittiest and smartest comments on semantics. (Illustration: extreme close-up from the movie "The Big Swallow" (1901), produced and directed by James Williamson (1855-1933)
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A Scheme for abolishing all Words is one of the wittiest and smartest comments on semantics. (Illustration: extreme close-up from the movie "The Big Swallow" (1901), produced and directed by James Williamson (1855-1933)
The Mysteries of Verbena House is a British flagellant novel, a celebration of le vice anglais. It deals graphically with erotic whipping of women, schoolgirls and others. Published anonymously by someone named 'Etonensis' (someone from Eton), its full title is "The Mysteries of Verbena House: or, Miss Bellasis birched for thieving". The contemporary critic Ashbee wrote of this book "After wading through so many dull, insipid, if not absolutely repulsive books on the subject, it is a relief to alight at last upon one which tact and clever writing render almost readable."

As Ashbee, Patrick Kearney, Peter Fryer and Patrick Read have pointed out, there were actually two authors, George Augustus Sala who started the tale and was "unable to complete the tale, in spite of his prodigious industry and astonishing facility for work" (Ashbee) and James Campbell Reddie, who wrote the last 47 pages (Kearney, 1981)

French translation

George de Chorrat Grassal, (pseud. Jean de Villiot): Les Mystères de la Maison de la Verveine ou, Miss Bellasis fouettée pour vol. Tableau de l'éducation des jeunes anglaises, Paris , Charles Carrington, 1901. VII, 154 p. 23 cm. Ill. by [[Adolphe Lambrecht]]. Translated and adapted from English. The mysteries of Verbena House, or, Miss Bellasis birched for thieving, London : Privately Printed, 1882. 2 vol. in 1 ; 17 cm.



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