MONSIEUR VENUS (Decadence from Dedalus) - Softcover

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Softcover

ISBN 10: 1873982208 ISBN 13: 9781873982204

Publisher: Dedalus Limited, 2015

Synopsis

As a woman, Rachilde was a rarity among Decadent authors, and in Raoule de Venerande she created a Decadent heroine of singularly monstrous proportions. For the imperious Raoule, Amazon and expert fencer, scion of an aristocratic line that has engendered Sadean libertines and pious spinsters, lesbianism is merely a banal vice. She seeks to transcend the limits of sensual experience in a liaison involving the sado-masochistic swapping of genders, and in which necrophilia can be relished in advance of death. The object of her desires is the girlish Jacques Silvert, whom she plucks from his insalubrious slum and installs as her mistress in a lavish boudoir. Raoule systematically enslaves Jacques by forcing him to surrender his maleness, while she embraces the role of virile lover and ultimately that of the husband about to be betrayed.

About this title

About the Author

Melanie Hawthorne is Professor of French at Texas A&M University. Her research focuses on nineteenth- and twentieth-century French literature, with special emphasis on prose fiction of the "Decadent" period and on women writers.

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: French

Edition details

• Publisher: Dedalus Limited
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1873982208
• ISBN 13: 9781873982204
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 100