"The Twilight Of The Nymphs" 1928 LOUYS, Pierre
$350
LOUYS, Pierre
Translated by Phillis Duveen
Introduction by Shane Leslie
[105] pp.
The Fortune Press
1928
9 3/4" x 6 1/2"
Five Greek myths retold. Each is accompanied by a black and white plate by Cecil Beaton; this is his first appearance in a book.
This edition is limited to 1200 copies of which this is number 619
A collection of seven mildly erotic "pastel" stories, based mostly on mythology, originally published in limited editions in Paris between 1893 and 1898. Pierre Louÿs retells these legends so beautifully that, under the spell of his relation, one almost loses sight of the extent to which their consummate literary craftsmanship reveals the master of literary technic no less than the imaginative artist. The pastels are not so sensational as some of the author's other works but, in a general sense, they are the most delicate and the most sympathetic of all his writings. Pierre Louÿs, pseudonym of Pierre Louis (1870-1925), was a French novelist and poet who expressed pagan sensuality with stylistic perfection. Louÿs frequented Parnassian and Symbolist circles and was a friend of the composer Claude Debussy. He founded various literary reviews, notably La Conque in 1891.