Renee Auden never went on to become an Anaïs Nin or a Pauline Réage, and very little is known about the real woman behind the pseudonym. But The Party feels like an unearthed gem, a free-love era Story of O that recounts female sexual fantasies just as beautifully. Why she didn’t publish more remains a mystery – a fact that only adds to the book’s charm as a rare erotic artefact of its time.

“She is the Supergroupie, the Modern Female, the Child-Woman. Felicity is the sensuous, naive, yet sophisticated product of the seventies. She floats through life on a volcanic stream of drugs and erotic dreams until she discovers that the trappings of lust get in the way when Mr. Right appears.”

This 1971 Olympia Press paperback features the publisher’s signature “O” design, from the period when they ditched their innocuous green covers and went full-on seventies. With several editions published the same year, it’s hard to tell which is the very first – a sign that the book was clearly in demand, and a detail that only adds to its mystery.