Pierre Louÿs

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Pierre Louÿs (December 10, 1870 – June 6, 1925) was a French poet and writer, most renowned for lesbian and classical themes in some of his writings. He is known as a writer who "expressed pagan sensuality with stylistic perfection."

Contents

Life

Pierre Louÿs was born Pierre Louis on December 10, 1870 in Ghent, Belgium, but moved to France where he would spend the rest of his life. He studied at the École Alsacienne in Paris, and there he developed a close friendship with a future Nobel Prize winner and champion of homosexual rights, André Gide. In the 1890s, he became a friend of the noted Irish dramatist and homosexual Oscar Wilde. Although heterosexual, Louÿs enjoyed entree into homosexual circles. Louÿs started writing his first erotic texts at the age of 18, at which point he developed an interest in the Parnassian and Symbolist schools of writing.

Early writings

In 1891, Louÿs helped found a literary review, La Conque,[1] where he proceeded to publish Astarte, an early collection of erotic verse already marked by his distinctive elegance and refinement of style. He followed up in 1894 with another erotic collection in 143 prose poems, Songs of Bilitis (Les Chansons de Bilitis), this time with strong lesbian themes.[2] It was divided into three sections, each representative of a phase of Bilitis's life: Bucolics in Pamphylia, Elegies at Mytilene, and Epigrams in the Isle of Cyprus; dedicated to her were also a short Life of Bilitis and three epitaphs in The Tomb of Bilitis. What made The Songs sensational is Louÿs' claim that the poems were the work of an ancient Greek courtesan and contemporary of Sappho, Bilitis; to himself, Louÿs ascribed the modest role of translator. The pretense did not last very long, and "translator" Louÿs was soon unmasked as Bilitis herself. This did little to tarnish The Songs of Bilitis, however, as it was praised as a fount of elegant sensuality and refined style, even more extraordinary for the author's compassionate portrayal of lesbian (and female in general) sexuality.

Some of the poems were tailored as songs for voice and piano. Louÿs' close friend Claude Debussy composed a musical adaptation Chansons de Bilitis (Lesure Number 90) for voice and piano (1897-1898) in three parts:[3]

In 1955, one of the first lesbian organizations in America called itself Daughters of Bilitis,[4] and to this day Louÿs' Songs continues to be an important work for lesbians.

Later writings

In 1896, Louÿs published his first novel, Aphrodite—Ancient Manners (Aphrodite—mœurs antiques), a depiction of courtesan life in Alexandria. It is considered a mixture of both literary excess and refinement, and, numbering at 350,000 copies, was the best selling work by any living French author in his day.

Louÿs went on to publish Les Aventures du roi Pausole (The Adventures of King Pausolus) in 1901, Pervigilium Mortis in 1916, both of them libertine compositions, and Manuel de civilité pour les petites filles à l'usage des maisons d'éducation (written in 1917, published posthumously and anonymously in 1927),[5][6] a parody whose obscenity is almost unparalleled even in the long history of French clandestine publishing.

Even while on his deathbed, Pierre Louÿs continued to write delicately obscene verses.

Illustrators

Many erotic artists have illustrated Louÿs's writings. Some of the most renowned have been Suzanne Ballivet, Georges Barbier, Paul-Emile Bécat, Louis-André Berthommé, J. A. Bresval, Antoine Calbet, Beresford Egan, Foujita, Louis Icart, Joseph Kuhn-Régnier, George Lepap, Pierre Leroy, Pierre Lissac, Mariette Lydis, Milo Manara, Lucio Milandre, Génia Minache, Pascal Pia, Georges Pichard, Alméry Lobel Riche, Renée Ringel, Rojan, Monique Rouver, Marcel Vertès, Lotan Welshans, and Édouard Zier, The most famous illustrations for The Songs of Bilitis were done by Willy Pogany in art deco style for a publication privately circulated by Macy-Masius, New York, in 1926.

Quotes

List of works

For recent limited editions of further writings by Pierre Louÿs, see the bibliography[8] by Patrick J. Kearney

Adaptions

See also

References

  1. ^ Rosemary Lloyd, Mallarmé: the poet and his circle. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2005, ISBN 0801489938, pp. 195-197
  2. ^ David Grayson, "Bilitis and Tanagra: afternoons with nude women" in Jane F. Fulcher (ed.), Debussy and his world. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001, ISBN 0691090424, pp. 117-140
  3. ^ Linda Cummins, Debussy and the Fragment. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2006, ISBN 9042020652, p. 109
  4. ^ Elisabeth Ladenson, Proust's Lesbianism. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1999, ISBN 0801435951, p. 3
  5. ^ Patrick J. Kearney, A History of Erotic Literature. London: Parragon, 1982, ISBN 1858131987, p. 171
  6. ^ Pascal Pia, Les Livres de l'Enfer: bibliographie critique des ouvrages érotiques dans leurs différentes éditions du XVIe siècle à nos jours, C. Coulet et A. Faure, 1978, ISBN 290268701X, pp. 425, 426, 778
  7. ^ "Translations by Whittaker Chambers". WhittakerChambers.org. http://www.whittakerchambers.org/translations.html. Retrieved 01 December 2010. 
  8. ^ Scissors-and-paste.net

External links

See also...
Media at Wikimedia Commons
Works at Wikisource
Works at Project Gutenberg
Works at Domínio Público
Works at Dominio Público
Works at eBooks Gratuits