By Éric Chevillard, from QWERTY Invectives. The book appeared last month as part of the Cahiers Series, which is published by Sylph Editions and the Center for Writers and Translators at the American University of Paris. Chevillard is the author of numerous novels and essays. Translated from the French by Peter Behrman de Sinéty. 

Water closet is misleading, loo is nonsense, restroom euphemistic, necessary house grandiloquent, shitter vulgar, privy archaic, facilities bureaucratic, lavatory hypocritical, potty ridiculous, craspes and modulette two neologisms I just made up on the spot. 

Gowns and hats on the ladies. Top hats and frock coats…