Idylle saphique

by Liane de Pougy

This is the first English translation of Liane de Pougy’s 1901 novel A Woman’s Affair (Idylle Saphique) which shocked French readers with its lesbian lover story, and is based on Liane de Pougy’s affair with Natalie Barney.

Despite her beauty and her riches, Annhine de Lys, one of the most notorious courtesans of 1890s Paris, is bored and restless. Into her life bursts Flossie, a young American woman, and everything changes. The love she offers Annhine is dangerous, perverse and hard to resist. Ignoring the warnings of her best friend, Annhine encourages the affair. Yet she cannot commit: she advances, retreats, becomes bewildered, ill. After a tragic incident at a masked ball, Annhine leaves Paris to make a long tour through Europe. But the attempt to put time and distance between them comes to nothing and the fateful relationship must run its course.

Genres: Lesbian, LGBT, Fiction, Queer, Classics, France, Lesbian Fiction

260 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1901

Reviews

[౨ৎ]

adding this dark sapphic french book to my tbr cause i need to 'study more' and actually 'learn french' so i decided to add some gayness into it :DD

[Lori · Rating 4 out of 5]

Idylle saphique (1901) is yet another fictionalized account (the other being Renée Vivien's excellent Une femme m'apparut... ) of someone's doomed relationship with Natalie Barney, a woman who quite frankly strikes me as rather sinister in how she seduced and discarded her lovers, justifying herself with an "enlightened" belief in non-monogamy. In this book an ex-girlfriend violently kills herself in front of Flossie (Natalie) and Annhine (Liane). Flossie recovers almost right away and lauds the act as one of bravery. Meanwhile, Annhine flees Paris to remove herself from Flossie's allure. It doesn't work, and she herself ends up dead. Eight years after Idylle saphique was published, Renée Vivien did in fact commit suicide, at least in part over Natalie.

Pougy was a courtesan, so the salaciousness (for the period) of Idylle saphique was basically #onbrand for her. Combine that with the melodrama and soap opera antics of her characters, and add in the obvious influence of the fashionable Symbolist authors (of which Vivien was one) in the unrealistically flowery dialogue, and you have one heck of a unique book. Interestingly, Pougy was apparently a lesbian who catered to men because that's where the power was; in this book her avatar Annhine is portrayed as bisexual. This first-ever English translation came out earlier this year (2021) and it's about time. How many other voices from queer sex workers of the fin-de-siècle have survived?

[Frankie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I understand that this book is a very important historical classic. It's honestly shocking to read a book published in 1901 that features a full-on graphic, erotic sapphic relationship. Go France, lol! Someone more knowledgeable about French literature than me can probably write a full analysis about why it's so wonderful and well-written. Maybe reading it in English did it a disservice. Maybe I will have to reread it 10 years later as an older person to fully appreciate it. But right now?

Personally, I just could not stand it. The longer I read, the more annoyed I got. The overly flowery prose (which I understand is a historical, classic stylistic choice; it's just not for me). The insufferable characters. And the weirdly punishing vibe towards the lesbian romance?? I know that we shouldn't hold a book that was published 120+ years ago to modern standards but it was just so uncomfortable to read, as a contemporary person. And this novel is a fictionalized account of the courtesan writer's real life sapphic relationship with a notorious American writer. So it's not as if the author was a critic publishing a morality tale lol.

(Spoilers below)

I get that the love interest Flossie (and the real life American writer she was based on) is a terrible womanizer who made her lovers miserable by basically ghosting them and chasing after the next best thing. But she is portrayed as this predatory lesbian who dresses in boy's clothes and forces herself onto the MC Nhine (who, by the way, refuses to accept that she is also attracted to women). She has a fiance, of course, because he is rich and his presence allows her the freedom to wander wherever she likes. Except that they have an agreement wherein she's free to have all the female lovers she wants, as long as he watches them sleep together, and gets off on it. In fact, her fiance HATES her relationship with Nhine because for once neither woman wants him in the room with them (or they don't want him there, period, even when they're just spending innocent time together).

Flossie falls in love with Nhine at first sight, and declares herself to be Nhine's page/servant. Nhine lets her stay around because she's persistent and she thinks it's funny, basically; I mean, she's used to men worshipping her... for once it's a woman! And their love scenes have a weird back and forth wherein sometimes Nhine is actively into it but sometimes Nhine insists that she isn't into women that way and that she doesn't want this at all etc and it just feels... too forceful.

Nhine's best friend Tesse (who she has been neglecting ever since she met Flossie) wants her to stay away from Flossie. Supposedly it's because she has a bad reputation of ruining various women (one poor girl even kills herself in front of them all, because she was so heartbroken by being abandoned) but really it just feels like Tesse is saying, "Nhine, you are not a lesbian. Break up with her now or else you will become old and ugly and deformed like these other women and then you will die." Yes, she uses various unattractive or disabled women as examples it is honestly wild.

And then of course, right when Nhine and Flossie decide that they're crazy enough to be together forever, Nhine dies :) And Flossie is miserable. But even then, it's implied that Flossie will find another woman to obsess over.

I genuinely really wanted to love this because sapphic classic literature in English is sooo rare but good god this was not for me.

[Gris Cuenca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lo que hubiera sido y nunca fue ni será. Happy pride :(

[Naomi Lawson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this for my MA dissertation on queer women in the music and dance halls of Britain and France (1880-1920), and while it was incredibly insightful to my area of research, I found it so enjoyable to just sit down and read as a piece of fiction.

Liane de Pougy was a famous dancer of the Folies-Bergère music hall, and she also gained notoriety as a sex worker. She conducted various queer relationships with dancers, writers and actresses of fin de siècle Paris, and this book fictionalised her relationship with the American author Natalie Clifford Barney.

Flossie (Barney) and Annhine (Pougy) come to meet when the former declares her love for the latter, after a performance one evening. They begin a passionate but incredibly tumultuous affair, in which Flossie tries to rescue Annhine from her life as a sex-worker, and attempts to seduce her. Their relationship is incredibly rocky, with Annhine being anxiety-ridden and reluctant to surrender to her same-sex desires and Flossie’s flirtations, and Flossie unable to accept Annhine’s choice of continuing a life as a sex-worker. Essentially, their relationship fails, and Annhine suffers the ultimate punishment - death (lol).

Many themes in this book are also reflected within Pougy’s published diaries ‘Mes cahiers bleu’ - which I believe has entries from 1919-1935. In her diaries, Pougy reflects on her relationship with Barney and many, many other women; her confliction regarding her same-sex desires (where she denies that she is in any manner a ‘lesbian’); and her guilt/disapproval/regret of partaking in sex work.

At the time it was released, it was a pretty juicy and scandalous novel depicting female same-sex desire. And although now it’s not as scandalous, and definitely not as juicy, I still think it’s pretty good.

[Laura López]

Se trata de un retrato de la cortesana y sus amoríos (el primero lésbico) el final es trágico y no por su muerte (cuya causa es ajena a la trama) sino porque muere sin aceptar su bisexualidad…

Aunque me gusta que den una breve introducción a las realidades de las personas que inspiraron la ficción pa bien se sabe que en realidad la autora si abrazó su bisexualidad

Menos mal que esta Flossie… he estado una semana hablando conmigo misma en prosa poético y siendo una intensa en mi cabeza porque FLOSSIE estas LOCA DE AMOR le amo. Como habla lo que dice sus palabras (bueno las de anninhe también) unos discursos amorosos exquisitos, es lo que más he disfrutado…

¿Por qué ya no nos dedicamos bellas palabras?

Me queda pendiente leer más sobre la vida de Natalie Clifford me ha causado mucha curiosidad conocer más a aquella seductora valiente y sin tapujos de mostrar quién es e ir a x lo que quiere

[Elise V. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un peu longuet et décousu. Ce roman a le mérite d'exister et de présenter de façon assez frontale le désir lesbien en 1900 (il y a 125 ans!) mais pfiou on s'ennuie vite des atermoiements des personnages et des grands discours mélodramatiques qui débouchent sur... rien. Dommage !

[Misha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Comment décrire ce roman? Bien qu'il soit radical dans son portrait intime de l'amour lesbien, il reste tout de même un mélodrame bourgeois. Je n'arrivais pas à prendre Flossie au sérieux, sa manière de parler comme la 'poésie' était vraiment trop pour moi (surtout savant des liaisons infidèles de Natalie Clifford Barney). J'ai apprecié les passages qui incarnaient le chaos et l'inconstance de l'amour, prenant par exemple le relation entre Annhine et Max. Pour conclure, le roman était une vue fascinante sur la vie des femmes saphiques à la Belle Époque, mais quel mélodrame à supporter!

[Devon]

read this for my french class-- there is no easily available english translation so for some parts REALLY in the dark here
but def for sure cool book
i say im gonna add more after we talk about it in class; but will I :(

[Angela · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's important, historically, but my god what a tough read. These women are intensely unlikeable.

[npc gr(an)dm(a) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lo acabe hace días pero se me olvidó escribir reseña, así que aquí va
8,5/10 ✨
puf liane de pougy, una cortesana bien loquette de principios del siglo XX, y también una escritora verdaderamente interesante.

este libro me hace pensar, que hay cosas que nunca cambian en las interacciones sáficas:
- el drama que supone elegir QUE CENAMOS HOY
- la fiesta de disfraces con la ex amante por ahí viéndolo todo

Es increíble que liane haya sido tan fiel a la realidad escribiendo este libro, llegando a citar las palabras exactas que intercambió en su extensa correspondencia por carta con Natalie (yo esto último lo agradezco bastante)

[Sofi Seuxf · Rating 5 out of 5]

Flowery writing, very sapphic

[antonia · Rating 3 out of 5]

increíblemente heterosexual para un libro con la palabra “sáfico” en el título

also que final de mierda. osea entiendo que era otra época pero damn, can’t a bitch be gay and happy?? and LIVE???

[júlia · Rating 4 out of 5]

💔💔

[enorab04 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Plutôt mitigée, c’était bien mais pas marquant… l’histoire est pas super originale puis c’est vraiment les petits états d’âme de la bourgeoisie quoi, mais bon y a des phrases super belles!

[Morgan Sandner · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was originally written in 1901 in France and was just translated in 2021. It's a lesbian love story following Annhine de Lys, a French courtesan in the 1890s in her on-again-off-again relationship with an American called Florance Temple-Bradford, loosely based on the authors affair with another female author, Natalie Barney.
I personally loved the little queer details in this book such as the very loving description of the nude painting she had commissioned of her best friend Atesse, which hangs in her bathroom, as well as talking about the other lesbians in their community and their female companions.
I don't care for Florances character but this book is written so beautifully that I can't wait to get my hands on "Chasing a dream"

[Eva del carmen · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite sapphic novels of the 1900s, it kept me on my toes the whole way through and the ending actually made me sit and stare at the ceiling for months to come. So real, so gay, I love u french dykes