Penthesilea

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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.