The Demi-Sexes and the Androgynes

De la Vaudère (1857–1908) wrote poetry, plays, and prose, and counted among her admirers Victor Hugo and Alexandre Dumas. She is considered a decadent writer because of the intensity of her prose and the melodramatic eroticism and fascination with torture evident in her plots. This is the first of a proposed six volumes of her fiction in translation, and contains “The Demi-Sexes” (1897) and “The Androgynes” (1903). Unlike much decadent fiction, both works are entirely naturalistic, and are set in a contemporary Parisian milieu. “The Demi-Sexes” is the story of an 18-year-old girl, a social success among the lower aristocracy, who manages to obtain surgical sterilization for the purposes of contraception. Since the author could not use any vocabulary specific to the topic—those words were unpublishable—the novel is a masterpiece of insinuation, suggestion, and innuendo. Its depiction of the lesbian salons of the period is also surprisingly non-judgmental and specific, until the inevitable and somewhat unbelievable narrative punishment of the protagonist’s sins. “The Androgynes” is a much more conventional story of a young man seduced and ruined by evil homosexuals. Though not as noteworthy as its blazing counterpart, it’s nevertheless a well-written and sharp story. Both novels, but especially the first, are fascinating examples of how sexuality has been depicted in literature. (June)