Book V, Stanzas 5-7 Summary

Stanza 5: Maldoror discloses that he is a pederast—that is, he is sexually attracted to young children—and describes the conditions of those with the same sexual interests and the nature of his own attraction. He notes that most pederasts are attracted to young girls; he, however, is more interested in young boys, for he finds that he has more in common with males than females. He claims to be intensely sexually attractive—to the point, indeed, that people come from all over the world just to taste his semen—but that he is only willing to open up his bed for a boy under fifteen years of age.

Stanza 6: The narrator muses on death in the context of a funeral procession for a dead young boy. He laments that he will never...