An Idyll in Sodom

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Georges de Lys’s An Idyll in Sodom, originally published in 1889, and here made available in its first English translation, by Brian Stableford, is a significant contribution to a subgenre of French Romantic fiction consisting of lush representations of moeurs antiques [ancient mores], a spectacular landmark of which was established with Salammbo by Gustave Flaubert, to whom the current novel is, in fact, dedicated.

Georges de Lys was the pseudonym of Georges Fontaine de Bonnerive (1855-1931), an army officer and literary maverick, and An Idyll in Sodom, with its robust approach to plotting and its muscular images of male beauty, illustrates the near-paradoxicality of the idea of a soldierly Decadent fantasy. Notable for its rich descriptions and orgiastic excesses, the book is an extravagant feat of lyrical strength, and its author deserves to be reckoned an important pioneer in the context of the Decadent Movement of the fin-de-siecle.