The Lifted Curtain and My Conversion are two short erotic classics written by the colourful, aristocratic political fire-brand, esteemed author, and renowned libertine the Comte Gabrel Honore Riquetti de Mirabeau, who spent much of his young adult life in prison at the behest of this father, who disapproved of his son's licentious behaviour. During one particular stretch, Mirabeau decided to put pen to paper, to while away the time and to make the separation from his then paramour more bearable. Pock-marked but boisterous, he never had trouble seducing the ladies, so his two stories are in part based on his own experience.

The Lifted Curtain confronts the age old taboo of incest and My Conversion is a humorous but cynical exploration of the sexual appetites of ladies of quality. For 200 years their publication remained clandestine, but they established Mirabeau's reputation as a writer, and in later years he became one of the Revolution's finest oratore. His state funeral lasted three days, and he is buried in the Pantheon.