Tropic of Cancer
The securely attributed Paris book against which this later volume was marketed.
Read our take
Under the Roofs of Paris
by Henry Miller
Six commissioned erotic pieces, published after Miller’s death under two titles — and shadowed by a serious authorship dispute.
- 1983
- 288
About Henry Miller
The story, briefly
Spoiler-freeGrove Press published this collection in 1983 as Opus Pistorum; a later edition called it Under the Roofs of Paris. The six pieces were associated with the private pornography syndicate that supplied a wealthy collector in the early 1940s. Miller’s name has remained on the cover, but archival material and later scholarship complicate that attribution: he denied writing several component titles, and the syndicate’s manuscripts were collaborative and often anonymous. Miller is therefore treated as the attributed author, not an uncontested one. (Contains extremely explicit sexual material and sexual violence.)
The story, in more detail
The bibliographic facts are clearer than the authorship. Grove Press issued a 288-page first hardcover edition in 1983 under the title Opus Pistorum; the same material appeared two years later as Under the Roofs of Paris. Library catalogues list six component titles: “Sous les Toits de Paris,” “The French Way,” “Rue de Screw,” “Black Mass and a Midget,” “France in My Pants,” and “Cherchez la Toit.”
The pieces came out of a clandestine commission rather than a conventional literary project. In the late 1930s and early 1940s a group of cash-strapped New York writers produced pornography to order through bookseller Milton Luboviski for a private collector. Work circulated without bylines, changed hands in typescript, and could be assembled or attributed long after it was written. That system makes a single-author claim especially difficult to prove.
The strongest reason for caution is Miller’s own denial. Scholarship on the syndicate reproduces a letter in which he told collector J. Rives Childs that “The French Way,” “Black Mass,” and “Rue de Screw” were not his, and mocked the idea that their titles sounded like him. The Syracuse archive also preserves material headed “Faking Henry Miller.” None of this proves that Miller contributed nothing; it does mean the honest page cannot present every sentence as securely his.
What is in the book
Six loosely connected erotic narratives follow an unnamed first-person adventurer through Paris and a succession of encounters. The 1983 jacket foregrounds four women — Marcelle, Tania, Alexandra, and Anna — but the book behaves more like a sequence of commissioned episodes than a novel with a stable cast or developing plot.
The narrative is graphic throughout and repeatedly includes coercion, rape, humiliation, and other sexual violence. Readers looking for the autobiographical Paris voice of Tropic of Cancer should know that both the purpose and the attribution of this collection are different.
Why we recommend it
A case study in unstable authorship
The page is most valuable as publication history: how anonymous commission writing can acquire a famous name decades later.
The two titles finally untangled
Treating Opus Pistorum and Under the Roofs of Paris together prevents a false duplicate while preserving both search identities.
A difficult edge of the archive
The collection shows why catalogues need room for attribution, denial, and uncertainty rather than a single unquestioned byline.
What this book explores
The people in its pages
Marcelle
One of four women named on the 1983 jacket as figures in the narrator’s episodic Paris encounters.
Tania
One of the women singled out by the first edition’s jacket, in a collection whose authorship remains disputed.
Alexandra
A named figure in the publisher’s outline of the narrator’s search for experience across the six pieces.
Anna
The fourth woman named on the 1983 jacket; the surviving catalogue description gives no trustworthy further particulars.
Timeline
Late 1930s–early 1940s
Anonymous writers connected through bookseller Milton Luboviski produce privately commissioned erotic manuscripts for a wealthy collector.
1983
Grove Press publishes the six-piece collection as Opus Pistorum under Henry Miller’s name.
1985
The material appears under the alternate title Under the Roofs of Paris.
2021
Nina Attwood and Barry Reay’s study of pornography syndicates re-examines Miller’s denial and the unstable authorship of the component texts.
Book editions
- Hardcover
- Grove Press
- 1983
- 9780394533742
Hardcover
- Hardcover
- W. H. Allen
- 1985
Reader reviews
Readers may also like
Quiet Days in Clichy
A genuine Miller manuscript that also circulated around the same collecting world, but should not be collapsed into the disputed syndicate texts.
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Delta of Venus
Anaïs Nin’s better-documented collection from the same private commission network.
Read our takeUnder the Roofs of Paris: frequently asked questions
Are Under the Roofs of Paris and Opus Pistorum the same book?
Yes. Grove Press first published the collection as Opus Pistorum in 1983; it was later published as Under the Roofs of Paris.
Did Henry Miller write Opus Pistorum?
The book was published under his name, but the attribution is disputed. Miller denied writing several component titles, and archival and scholarly accounts connect the material to an anonymous collaborative commission network.
What does Opus Pistorum contain?
Six explicit erotic pieces: “Sous les Toits de Paris,” “The French Way,” “Rue de Screw,” “Black Mass and a Midget,” “France in My Pants,” and “Cherchez la Toit.”
Is the book as explicit as Tropic of Cancer?
It is substantially more explicit and includes rape, coercion, humiliation, and sexual violence. It was commissioned as pornography rather than conceived like Miller’s major autobiographical books.
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References
References
The sources below include the primary text, editions, scholarship, archival materials, and other records that informed this page. They document Under the Roofs of Paris, its publication, and its place in literary history.
1Under the Roofs of Paris
NovelHenry Miller, 1983Used forThe primary text represented by this page, used for descriptions of the work’s contents and for any quoted passages shown here.
2Opus Pistorum (by Henry Miller) Collection
ArchiveSpecial Collections Research Center, Syracuse University LibrariesUsed forArchival evidence used to document the historical record connected to Under the Roofs of Paris.
3Opus pistorum — 1983 Grove Press edition record
Official recordOpen Library, Internet ArchiveUsed forOfficial record used to verify names, dates, institutional details, or other factual information on this page.
4The syndicates: writing pornography before the sexual revolution
PeriodicalPorn Studies 8, no. 2, 2021Used forContemporary reporting or criticism used to document the historical reception and context of Under the Roofs of Paris.
5Henry Miller: A Life
BiographyW. W. Norton, 1991Used forUsed for Miller’s broader 1940s chronology and bibliographic context.
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Why these sources are here
The primary text is the baseline reference for every book page. Additional references document publication history, interpretation, and historical context where that evidence is available.
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