The "Book of Love," published anonymously in 1875/76 by Friedrich Louis Münchmeyer in Dresden, is the most remarkable and astonishing book by Karl May. Although it contains numerous foreign texts, some of which have only recently been identified, it can still be considered his debut work. It was initiated at the request of the publisher, who wanted to reintroduce the censored enlightenment work "The Sexually Transmitted Diseases of Humans and Their Cure," authored by an unknown writer, in a new guise. However, under the hands of the young and ambitious writer Karl May, the "Book of Love" became much more than just a commissioned work. While the enlightenment book still formed the core of the now three-part work, May also included extensive, only slightly toned down lascivious-erotic passages from another Münchmeyer work about history in the concluding section.