La Bretonne, a printer by trade, published over 250 novels in his lifetime, many of them social tracts concerning reform. In his private life, the man was rather liberated and when he writes, he writes from experience. Pleasures and Follies was titled L'Anti-Justine, ou les Delices de l'Amour. The work traces the growth and sexual awakening of Genovefette and her brother Cupidonnet, as they rise from adolescence into a world strewn with playful couplings... and numerous partners.