RACHILDE [Eymery-Valette Margaret] - Tower of Love 1928 [COVER T. GRONOWSKI].

Tower of love (La tour d'amour)

1st Polish edition

Cover art by Tadeusz Gronowski

Marguerite Vallette-Eymery (1860-1953), known as Rachilde, is one of the most colorful figures of literary life in the second half of the 19th century. Nicknamed "the queen of the decadents" at the end of her career, the young novelist burst onto the literary scene amidst scandal with her first novel, Pan Venus. Her name constantly recurs under the pen of the greatest literary greats of the era: Barres, Lorrain or Verlain. As the spouse of Alfred Valette, the director of a major literary magazine, the Mercure de France, Rachilde ran the "Novels" column there from 1897 to 1922. The author, whose visiting cards bear the signature "Rachilde, writer" and who introduces herself as a "literary androgyne," poses the question of gender identity in an original and still relevant way. To the war of the sexes, or role reversal, the writer seeks to oppose the ideal of androgyny. It is writing that becomes an act of transgressing traditional gender boundaries. In an era when the status of women writers is not yet recognized, Rachilde declares: "I have found for myself an excellent place that no one ever wants: the middle." (after Margaret Zioło, Rachilde: "homme de lettres", "femme de lettres", "androgyne de lettres"?)

Year of publication: Warsaw 1928, Towarzystwo Wydawnicze "Rój"

s. 175, [1].

Format: 18 x 13 cm

Binding: publisher's booklet

Condition: complete and consistent, pages with creases on edges, minor rust discoloration [foxing - no harm to text], no signatures or underlining in text, minor foreign numerical signature on first page [in pencil], cover with creases on edges, minor discoloration on face, minor tears on spine edges