Monsieur Venus

When the rich and well-connected Raoule de Vénérande becomes enamored of Jacques Silvert, a poor young man who makes artificial flowers for a living, she turns him into her mistress and eventually into her wife. Raoule's suitor, a cigar-smoking former hussar officer, becomes an accomplice in the complications that ensue.

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. Liz Constable is Associate Professor in the Women and Gender Studies program at UC Davis. Her primary research areas focus on late nineteenth-century and twentieth century French and Francophone Cultural Studies and Film. She has published widely in these areas, including articles on Simone de Beauvoir and French women decadent writers.