Georges Bataille.
 
New York: Urizen Books, 1977. Octavo. Yellow boards, black cloth in an unclipped dust jacket with two small tears, one on the bottom front, the other mended with tape on the top of the verso, else fine. 120 pages. First American edition. Near fine.
 
Originally published in French as L'histoire de l'œil in 1928 under the pseudonym Lord Auch (meaning Lord of the Shit-house). Surreal, violent erotica complete with blood orgies, suicide, murder, teenage kicks, soft-boiled eggs, and sailing. But make no mistake: this is not low-grade smut. Consider the quotes from Susan Sontag, Michel Foucault, and Jean-Paul Sarte that adorn the cover; this is pornography as high art crafted by a man who took most everything to the extreme (in life and in fiction). The finest American first edition copy of Bataille's most notorious work on the market. 
 
"I did not care for what is known as 'pleasures of the flesh' because they really are insipid; I cared only for what is classified as 'dirty.' On the other hand, I was not even satisfied with the usual debauchery, because the only thing it dirties is debauchery itself, while, in some way or other, anything sublime and perfectly pure is left intact by it. My kind of debauchery soils not only my body and my thoughts, but also anything I may conceive in its course, that is to say, the vast starry universe, which merely serves as a backdrop.”