Under the assumed name Rachilde, Marguerite Eymery (1860 1953) wrote over sixty works of fiction, drama, poetry, memoir, and criticism, including Monsieur Venus, one of the most famous examples of decadent fiction. She was closely associated with the literary journal Mercure de France, inspired parts of Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray, and mingled with all the literary lights of the day. Yet for all that, very little has been written about her. Melanie C. Hawthorne corrects this oversight and counters the traditional approach to Rachilde by persuasively...

"For those readers who are interested in women writers, and in questions of gender and psychoanalytic theory, The Juggler will be a new text to explore and to add to the canon. For those readers who are looking for an exciting narrative, The Juggler will be considered 'a good read.'"--Elaine Marks, University of Wisconsin-Madison The Juggler (La Jongleuse) is a "decadent" novel that was first published in 1900. Its author, Marguerite Eymery Vallette (1860-1953), who used the pseudonym Rachilde, was a prolific novelist (over sixty works of fiction), playwright, literary critic and reviewer,...

When the rich and well-connected Raoule de Venerande becomes enamored of Jacques Silvert, a poor young man who makes artificial flowers for a living, she turns him into her mistress and eventually into her wife. Raoule's suitor, a cigar-smoking former hussar officer, becomes an accomplice in the complications that ensue.

When the rich and well-connected Raoule de Venerande becomes enamored of Jacques Silvert, a poor young man who makes artificial flowers for a living, she turns him into her mistress and eventually into her wife. Raoule's suitor, a cigar-smoking former hussar officer, becomes an accomplice in the complications that ensue.