In 1907 Guillaume Apollinaire, one of the most original and influential poets of the twentieth century, turned his hand to the novel. He produced two books for the clandestine market. The finer of these was Les Onze Mille Verges (Eleven Thousand Virgins). One of the most masterful and hilarious erotic novels of all time, it was once owlishly pronounced by Picasso to be Apollinaire's masterpiece.

The title contains a play on the Catholic veneration of the Eleven Thousand Virgins, 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.