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Loading... By Cecile (Femmes Fatales) (1963)by Tereska Torrès
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A coming of age novel set in post-war France by an author who "launched the modern genre of the lesbian paperback" (Susan Stryker, author of Queer Pulp). When eighteen-year-old Cécile is orphaned at the end of World War II, the curious and adventurous Catholic student finds refuge in Paris, and with an older man. A former member of the Resistance with Cécile's parents, Maurice is handsome, a thrilling cultured patron of the arts, and a mentor eager to introduce the budding young author to his intimate circle of friends--Cocteau, Sartre, and Eartha Kitt! As liberating an influence as he is, Maurice also encourages Cécile to shed her inhibitions he sees as bourgeois. Possessing a sensual and passionate temperament, Cécile is eager to begin exploring--by sharing Maurice's mistress, and writing of every life-changing and delightfully scandalous new experience. Credited with penning the first, candidly lesbian novel--Women's Barracks, in 1950--Tereska Torrès "scandalized mid-century America" (The New York Times). In By Cécile, written in 1963, "Madame Torres has re-imagined a youthful Colette (here called Cécile) in the infinitely seductive post-World War II period in Paris, where she moves like a sleeping princess through the perverse fairy tales of man-made cafe society. [It's] a sharply perceptive novel" (Joan Schenkar, author of The Talented Miss Highsmith). No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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By Cecile tells the story of a young girl plucked from her wartime country retreat by a much older man. She goes from petty provincial to hip Parisienne by the mere thrust of her husband's sexually enlightening hips. (So it goes in French literature, mais oui?) Of course he's charming, a womanizer, and a scoundrel. Of course she's bored and degraded in no time. To cure her boredom and his money woes, Cecile is encouraged (i.e. locked in a room) by her husband to recount her school days and put it onto paper. Add a touch of lesbian innuendo and what Cecile creates is a sensation strikingly Claudine-like in nature, right down to her husband's name being signed to the work.
What else can possibly follow but more depression and degradation? Well there is also our heroine's discovery of her literary merits independent of her husband's usurpation. It's a compelling enough story hampered only by the fact that the prose seems written in tar at certain points. (The first three pages are about the mutability of Cecile's eye color, the next two pages about slugs on lettuce leaves, and the next two pages we're back to eye color again...yeah, I think you get the idea.) There's enough marital angst and self-reflection to make for some decent feminist awakenings, and just enough suggested salaciousness to make this into a pulp. Descend to the depths of depravity and depression with Cecile, but don't worry about her too much--the kid is going to be all right. ( )