Teleny or The Reverse of the Medal
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Teleny, or, The Reverse of the Medal, is a gay novel, set in Paris in the 1890s about a young man who falls in love with a Hungarian pianist. First published clandestinely in London in 1893, the authorship is not indicated. A French bookseller, Charles Hirsch, who operated the Librairie Parisienne in London, became aware of the manuscript since through his offices, it passed to various friends of Oscar Wilde. Hirsch noted various handwritings, erasures and corrections which led him to conclude that the work was a combined effort of a number of writers. In his opinion, Oscar Wilde supervised and corrected the manuscript.
A paperback edition from Icon Books came out in 1966. This was an expurgated version due to the laws regarding obscene publication in effect at the time. In the introduction to that edition, readers are advised that if they wish to see the complete text they can in the British Museum, where a copy in kept in the Private Case. Since that time, a few editions have been published, often by small gay publishing houses. In 1986, it was published in London by GMP in the series Gay Modern Classics; Wordsworth Classics published it in 1995 in their series Wordsworth Classic Erotica.
An unexpurgated Spanish translation by Alberto Cardin is available from the publisher Laertes in the series Colección Rey de Bastos.