When Jean Genet’s Querelle de Brest was first published in 1947, it included a set of illustrations by Jean Cocteau specifically drawn for the novel, though the first edition indicated no name for either author or artist; a second unillustrated edition published later the same year acknowledged Genet as the author. Querelle is set in the Atlantic port town of Brest, where its protagonist, Georges Querelle, is a bisexual thief, prostitute and serial killer who manipulates and kills his lovers for thrills and profit.

Cocteau’s drawings, which you can see here, do not specifically illustrate Genet’s narrative, but convey the general themes of the novel; most being of virile sailors with large genitals, protruding nipples and lots of hair. Though the book includes violent scenes (two murders are committed) the images are never violent, some being positively languid. Ten years later René Bolliger produced this complementary and unique portfolio of thirty drawings in white ink on black paper, mirroring the Cocteau drawings but according to Bolliger’s personal interpretation of Genet’s text.

The best English translation of Querelle of Brest is that by Gregory Streatham, published by Faber.