Les Onze mille verges ou les Amours d'un hospodar

Les Onze Mille Verges ou les Amours d'un hospodar is a pornographic novel by French author Guillaume Apollinaire, published in 1907 over his initials "G.A.”. The title contains a play on the Catholic veneration of the "Eleven thousand Virgins" (French: les onze mille vierges), the martyred companions of Saint Ursula, replacing the word vierge (virgin) with verge (rod) due to a slip of the tongue by the protagonist and as an omen of his fate. The use of the word verge may also be considered as a pun, for it is used as a vulgarism for the male member. It was translated into English by Alexander Trocchi (using the pseudonym "Oscar Mole") as The Debauched Hospodar (1953); by Nina Rootes as Les onze mille verges: or, The Amorous Adventures of Prince Mony Vibescu (1976); and later by Alexis Lykiard as The Eleven Thousand Rods (2008).