Sodome
1888
Henri d'Argis
Paris : Alphose Piaget
French
Novel
283pp
Bisexual, Intersex
He relives all his life: his childhood, his family, his college, his travels, and that frightening, absurd and impossible love which for so long gnaws at his heart, and which neither pleasures nor marriage, nor work, nor faith could heal... (tr. Google)
Summary
Jacques Soran, an young French nobleman, attempts to ignore his attraction to men by falling in love with woman. He rejects one girl when he learns she is a hermaphrodite and is married to a docile wife he has no interest in. Finally, he goes mad when he discovers the 17-year old boy he loves with his mistress.
More Info
Written by Alphonse Berty as Henri d'Argis. Contains a preface by Paul Verlaine.
Considered the first homosexual French novel, disregarding Monsieur Auguste (1859). Companion to Gomorrhe (1889). Follows the hereditary line of belief in victimhood.
Also see:
Bibliothèque Gay (Mar 28, 2009 & Oct 10, 2020)
"Proust and Ambient Medico-Literary Homosexualities 1885-1922" (2012) by Michael Finn.
Content & Trigger Warnings
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Editions
Paris : Alphose Piaget (1888) 30 copies. Seen at Bibliothèque Gay.
Paris : Alphose Piaget (1889) Reissued with a pictoral cover to match its companion volume, Gomorrhe (1889), seen at Bibliothèque Gay.