Originally published anonymously in 1725, and here presented in a fresh translation by Brian Stableford, The Temple of Gnide is Montesquieu's illicit smash hit from the Age of Enlightenment. The author, whose works were all placed on the Index Prohibitorum by the Church, making it a sin to read them, or even to know of their existence, composed this short novel, or long prose poem, as an attempt to explore the psychological operation of the sexual...