"The Angel and the Perverts," admirably translated by Anna Livia,
offers a glimpse into the subculture of gender ambiguity that was
the origin point for today's lesbian and gay communities. As the
question concerning the relationship between homosexuality and
gender difference is once again being raised, Delarue-Mardrus'
novel no longer seems an anachronistic apologia from a more
closeted era, but an intriguing exploration of identities that take
gender difference, rather than sexuality, as their starting
point."
--Will Roscoe, author of The Zuni Man-Woman
Set in the lesbian and gay circles of Paris in the 1920s, The
Angel and the Perverts tells the story of a hermaphrodite born to
upper class parents in Normandy and ignorant of his/her physical
difference. As an adult, s/he lives a double life as Marion/Mario,
passing undetected as a lesbian in the literary salons of the
times, and as a gay man in the cocaine dens made famous by
Colette.
Delarue-Mardrus's novel belongs to a category of literature,
written between the turn of the century and approximately 1930,
which depicted lesbians as members of a third sex. The
hermaphrodite became the visual representation of the ways in which
lesbians were different from their heterosexual sisters, and Rene
Vivien, Natalie Clifford Barney, Rachilde, and Colette, among
others, shared Delarue-Mardrus's fascination with the topic.
This is the first translation into English of The Angel and the
Perverts. In an astute introduction, Anna Livia rereads Lucie
Delarue-Mardrus as a prolific and significant writer, despite the
fact that previous scholars viewed her primarily as the wife of the
scholar and translator Joseph-Charles Mardrus.Livia also places
Delarue-Mardrus's life in a lesbian context for the first time and
decodes this delightful novel so that readers will feel quite at
home in Mario/Marion's unusual world, which runs the gamut from
Auguste Rodin to Jean Cocteau and Sarah Bernhardt.
General
Imprint: |
New York University Press
|
Country of origin: |
United States |
Series: |
The Cutting Edge: Lesbian Life and Literature Series |
Release date: |
July 1995 |
First published: |
July 1995 |
Authors: |
Lucie Delarue-Mardrus
|
Editors: |
Anna Livia
|
Dimensions: |
229 x 152 x 21mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Hardcover - Trade binding
|
Pages: |
246 |
ISBN-13: |
978-0-8147-5080-3 |
Categories: |
Books >
Fiction >
General & literary fiction >
Modern fiction
|
LSN: |
0-8147-5080-X |
Barcode: |
9780814750803 |
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