Penthesilea
Georges de Lys
Translated by Brian Stableford
Penthesilea, originally appeared in two parts in the French periodical La Nouvelle Revue, but never heretofore published in book form, was author Georges de Lys’ second major contribution to the subgenre of neo-Romantic accounts of moeurs antiques, following on the heels of the Biblical fantasy An Idyll in Sodom.
No less flamboyant than its predecessor, though significantly more cruel, this novel, here presented in an excellent translation by Brian Stableford, takes the Greek tragedy to relentless extremes, with the story of the eponymous Amazon heroine departing radically from earlier versions, most especially in its trenchant finale.
A military novel of the Decadent Movement, Penthesilea remains an impressive work, remarkable in its uncompromising excess, and fully deserving rescue from the oblivion into which it inevitably fell, hidden in the pages of a forgotten literary journal.
About the Author
Georges de Lys (1855-1931) was the pseudonym of Georges Fontaine de Bonnerive. He was in service when he published all of his early work, which included three poetry collections, beginning with Les Idoles (1884) and one naturalistic novel, Raymond Meyreuil (1886), before he published Une Idyll à Sedôm (1889). He went on to publish Penthesilea (1896), and numerous other novels, volumes of poetry and military studies, but little attention has been paid to him by orthodox literary historians, perhaps partly because the violent eroticism of the Une Idyll à Sedôm cast a shadow over his reputation from which it never entirely recovered, in spite of two of his subsequent works being awarded prizes by the Académie française.
About the Translator
Brian Stableford has been publishing fiction and non-fiction for fifty years. His fiction includes a series of “tales of the biotech revolution” and a series of metaphysical fantasies featuring Edgar Poe’s Auguste Dupin. He has previously translated for Snuggly Books a number of titles, including The Soul-Drinker and Other Decadent Fantasies by Jean Lorrain, and The Unknown Collaborator and Other Legendary Tales by Victor Joly.
Paperback, 149 pages. Release date: July 20, 2021
ISBN-13: 978-1-64525-072-2
Price: US$16.00