Paperback 1056: Dell D279 (1st Dell, 1959)
Title: In Case of EmergencyAuthor: Georges Simenon
Cover artist: photo
Condition: 7/10
Estimated value: $10-15
- If anything was gonna kickstart this blog again, it was gonna be a sudden jolt of "frank"ness (picked this up on Sunday at Autumn Leaves bookstore in Ithaca)
- Is there another way to be "shocking" besides "frankly shocking"? Can you be "coyly shocking"?
- I know there is the suggestion of titillation inside ("8 PAGES OF PHOTOGRAPHS") but you'd think they would've offered up a more (frankly) suggestive shot of Bardot for the cover. Yes, she appears to be naked and in bed, but it's really a rather dull still—as if she were merely eyeing the cover copy and thinking, "yeah, I guess that's OK."
- I want to live in a world where promises of JEAN GABIN photos could move books
Best things about this back cover:
- "Thoughts of Jean Gabin invaded her mind like ... well, like this red arrow!"
- Yes, "obsessed" with his mistress, we get it, you said that on the cover, come on, thesaurus!
- Nevermind, I just finished reading that first paragraph, put the thesauraus down, I repeat, put the thesaurus down, step away from the adjectives, please
- I know "little slut of the streets" is supposed to sound insulting but I think it's kind of cute ... also, maybe your "traitorous body" is your own problem, pal
- "Degrading," "depravity," "destruction," "desires" ... how about "desist" or "depart the D section of your dictionary, dude"?
Page 123~
"You'll see! She's got a pretty little pussy, with real blonde hair."
OK so that "pussy" is not I repeat not a cat. Frankly, I'm shocked. No, I'm being *real* frank, not boy-who-cried-frank frank. This quotation seems ... well, as explicit as anything I've ever seen in a book from a mainstream 1950s paperback publisher. I guess the French get more leeway. You know how they are.
~RP
