“I like the word decadent, all shimmering with purple and gold.”
—Paul Verlaine
By Rachilde
Foreword by Eleanor Keane
Translated by Lauren Fischer
“An unapologetically offbeat and insightful adventure of a young Frenchwoman.”
—Kirkus Reviews
From Rachilde, Queen of the Decadents, comes a novel set in Belle Époque Paris about a passionate young woman who lives for love. Laure Lordès escapes her hometown amid scandal, following her lover to the city to live like a pet in a gilded cage. But when a feral kitten touches Laure’s heart and she begins to change, she learns that being true to herself and her young charge is harder than she ever imagined. First published in 1893 by Rachilde—a fiercely independent author who explored provocative sexuality and characters—The Animal is arguably her finest work. Translated here into English for the first time, the story unfolds into a stunning conclusion.
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By Francesca Penchant
“A haunting tale of addiction, trauma, and survival that captures the dim glow of lost stardom.”
—Kirkus Reviews
Glamorous May Deville is headed for destruction as she drinks away the 1950s at her husband’s bar. Memories of her vaudeville days, triggered by the death of the stage mother who made her a child star, just make her drink harder. But when a beautiful stranger convinces her husband, Ace, to dream of the big time, May must sober up if she wants to survive. Maybe in Heaven is the strange, decadent portrait of a lost woman fighting against a bitter little world—in which gender is a performance and love is a con.
Fans of Charles Jackson’s The Lost Weekend, Gypsy Rose Lee’s Gypsy, and Megan Abbott’s Queenpin will enjoy the style of this fever-dream thriller and its cast of ruthless females. At last call, Maybe in Heaven is an intoxicating love letter to noir, and to art itself.
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By Rachilde
“An innocent but curious heroine who discovers the extent of human depravity is the core of much of Rachilde’s fiction, and the present novel is no exception.”
—Melanie C. Hawthorne
Amid the rose gardens of her father’s farm, beautiful Marguerite Davenel is weary of her supposedly charmed life. When she encounters charismatic Fulbert, an anarchist who despises the bourgeois world that she represents, he upends the very foundations of her existence. As their complicated attraction deepens, the appearance of a woman from Fulbert’s past blurs the boundaries between good and evil, forcing Marguerite to decide where she stands. First published in 1904 by Rachilde, a fiercely independent author who explores provocative sexuality and characters, the novel is translated here into English for the first time.
The Underbelly illustrates Rachilde’s enduring relevance—a decadent tale in which the propriety of the countryside hides a dark underside.
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By Rachilde
In 1884, the French novelist Rachilde scandalized Paris with Monsieur Vénus, her story of a woman who seduces a florist and makes him her “mistress,” in a reversal of gender roles.
And yet, decades later, Rachilde wrote this provocatively titled essay Why I Am Not a Feminist (1928). In it, she voices her opposition to the burgeoning feminist movement, while at the same time identifying the era’s sexism. She skewers cocktail-guzzling flappers in their mimicry of masculine vices, while delving into the fraught family experiences—with her distant mother and soft-hearted grandmother—that led to her distrust of other women. So, despite Rachilde’s good literary citizenship as a salonnière—and friendships with other authors, such as Oscar Wilde, Jean Lorrain, and Alfred Jarry—this essay raises questions about her assumed allegiances.
Translated here into English for the first time by Jennifer Higgins, Why I Am Not a Feminist is a central document for Rachilde scholars, a key to understanding Rachilde’s beliefs and work. An individualist to the last, unconcerned with public opinion, Rachilde’s outspokenness still inspires today.
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Our Nonpareil Composition Notebook features an orginal illustration inspired by classic European marbled paper on the cover, saddle-stapled binding, and 100 ruled pages.
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