When 'Le Rideau levé, ou l'Education de Laure' (The Lifted Curtain or Laure's Education) was published anonymously in 1786, Mirabeau had already lived an adventurous life, having found himself behind bars multiple times or celebrated as a speaker in court, defending his supposedly improper lifestyle. Consequently, he could no longer afford to attract trouble and decided not to publish his erotic books under his own name. Laure's Education takes the reader into the still intact world of the upper classes on the eve of the French Revolution. The book depicts the education and life of a young girl from her first erotic encounter to orgies that are described in detail. His novel is one of the most liberal erotic books of the Enlightenment, in which Mirabeau advocates for sexual freedom and self-determination of the sexes, as well as the necessity of a connection between spiritual and physical love.