A Caution for Young Girls is a book of erotica, allegedly the autobiography of Lady Coryanne Wylde.
History[]
A Caution for Young Girls is renowned as one of the most debased books in circulation within the Seven Kingdoms. It is supposedly the memoir of Lady Coryanne Wylde, who served in the court of Queen Alysanne Targaryen on Dragonstone. It recounts a life of "sin, suffering, and slavery" - in the words of Archmaester Gyldayn - in which she finds herself as handmaid to a queen, the paramour of a young knight, a camp follower in the Disputed Lands, a serving wench in Myr, a mummer in Tyrosh, the "plaything" of a corsair queen in the Basilisk Isles, a slave in Volantis, the handmaid of a Qartheen warlock, the mistress of a pleasure house in Lys, and ultimately a septa in Oldtown, where she laid down the story of her life.
There are several installments of the book in circulation, due to the fact that most of the population of Westeros are illiterate, and professional book-copiers only serve the elite. Maesters are trained to reproduce books exactly, and Septons are taught to strike out passages that are considered obscene or offensive. As a result, A Caution for Young Girls was likely transcribed by expelled septons, or failed students of the Citadel. According to Gyldayn, the worst possibility would be mummers, who feel the need to "improve" works they are transcribing, usually by adding further incidents into the text.
The inaccurate translations cause for multiple distinct copies of the work to be extant, with each of them being almost like separate books. They do not even share the same title - though all contain the subtitle A Caution for Young Girls. The four primary editions are Sins of the Flesh, The High and Low, A Wanton's Tale, and The Wickedness of Men.
Sins of the Flesh and The High and Low are considered to be the earlier versions, and they are shorter, whilst A Wanton's Tale and The Wickedness of Men are considered to be later, and are longer, with additions not present in other versions.
Several hundred copies of the book were burned by King Baelor I Targaryen, who was famously pious, though he failed to destroy all the copies. Hundreds more have since been recopied, circulating around the brothels and other low places of Westeros.
Gyldayn uses the book as the basis for an incident during the reign of King Jaehaerys. Allegedly, Coryanne was hired by either Rogar Baratheon, the Hand of the King, or his brother, Ser Borys Baratheon, to travel to Dragonstone and seduce Jaehaerys, which would drive a wedge between his relationship with his young wife, Queen Alysanne. Some versions state that she did have sex with Jaehaerys but he later repented, whilst others say that he was tempted but didn't act upon it, and others further say that he refused her outright. Other stories also say that she slept with either Rogar or Borys before she was sent to Dragonstone.