Following the bungled seduction of his beautiful tutor, Charles, Lord Linwood, is sent to Holywell Hall, a magnificent country estate, to be taught by an imperious French governess, Mademoiselle Diane d'Erébe. Outraged at his placement under feminine or petticoat rule, Charles experiences a profound sense of abasement. His humiliation is exacerbated through subjection to the discipline of the rod and enforced cross-dressing. Submission, however, transforms into a path of love and exquisite pleasure... The Petticoat Dominant was first issued in 1898 by Leonard Smithers (1861-1907), an English publisher significant for his support of Aubrey Beardsley and Oscar Wilde, and his partner Duringe. It was probably published and printed in Paris, where Smithers' clandestine trade was based in the late 1890s. The name of the author, M. Le Comte du Bouleau, is, of course, a pseudonym. Authorship is attributed to an English lawyer, Stanislas Matthew de Rhodès (1857-1932), who is also credited with writing The Yellow Room (1891) and Gynecocracy (1893). It is worth noting, though, that Gynecocracy has also been attributed to the English psychologist, Henry Havelock Ellis (1859-1939).