As a young but precocious lady, Therese always suspected that there were pleasures to be had of the flesh. So when she espies her teacher Father Dirrag manipulating fellow student Eradice's buttocks with the 'Holy Rod', before copulating with the devout girl in the most lascivious of ways, Therese's interests in all things sexual reaches a peak. Eager to feel the spiritual release that Eradice thus describes to her, our young heroine embarks on an intimate journey of self discovery.

It is not long before her mother finds out and immediately whisks her off to a convent, within which walls she is denied the very pleasures that her soul strives to master. Losing herself to melancholia she soon weakens. But when Mme C and Abbe T take pity on her, her voyeuristic tendency return as she witnesses the two discuss all deed and device libertine while rutting in the most wanton of ways.

In part II Therese meets experience prostitute Mme, Bois-Laurier, whose story she recounts in wonderfully graphic detail. Here Therese will learn all the forbidden practices that have thus far alluded her. Before long she catches the eye of the Count. A man she refuses at first but returns with a very singular proposal; if she last two weeks in a room stacked with the most libidinous of literature without pleasuring herself, he will accept her rejection. Will here eager fingers fail her or will he Count finally meet his match.

This gem of renaissance erotica, written by Jean-Baptiste de Boyer, the Marquis d'Argens, in 1748, features graphic depictions of fornication and flagellation enough to titillate the steeliest of readers. A fine addition to any collection of forbidden literature.