Richard       Mason
Piet Barol, the titular pleasure seeker, is a priapic, ambitious young man come to seek his fortune in belle Ã©poque Amsterdam. Unlike FrÃ©dÃ©ric Moreau in Flaubert's ,L'Ã‰ducation sentimentale, (to which this book owes no meagre debt), Piet is magnificently gifted, not only "extremely attractive to most women and to many men," but also a fine pianist, draughtsman and lover. We first meet him interviewing for the role of tutor to the son of the wealthy hotelier, Maarten Vermeulen-Sickerts. All is not well in his gilded household. Egbert, the son, is agoraphobic. The matriarch, Jacobina, hasn't been touched by her husband in almost a decade. Into this highly strung atmosphere comes Piet, charged with the task of freeing Egbert from his paralysing fear of the outside world. We soon realise, however, that Egbert isn't the only one in need of help. Piet sets about liberating the libidos of the repressed family through music â€“ championing bawdy Bizet over abstract Bach â€“ and oral sex. While the setting is Dutch, the influences are French â€“ think ,Bel-Ami,, ,Les Liaisons dangereuses, and Gide's ,L'Immoraliste,.
Fiction,Historical,Historical Fiction,Historical,Literary Fiction,Romance,Adult Fiction,Erotica,Adult Fiction,Contemporary,Novels,European Literature,British Literature
History of a Pleasure Seeker