REVIEW: Oscar Wilde (and friends): "Teleny"

Oscar Wilde: TelenyTeleny, or The Reverse of the Medal 
(Homoerotic Classic; Novel)

The homoerotic novel Teleny is an important antithesis to the prudish idealism of the neo-classic and neo-romantic lyric love poetry of the fin du siècle. It is a work of unmasking the cynical double moral standards of the Victorian era: The love of Camille and Teleny is shattered by social reprisals.

It is said that Oscar Wilde and his friends alternatively wrote sections of the manuscript, while it was hidden at the publisher's bookstore. It was finally published in 1893 in 200 copies by Leonard Smithers who praised it as being "the most powerful and cleverly written erotic romance which has appeared in the English language" during that era, "a book that will certainly rank as the chief of its class."

This edition includes illustrations by Uday K. Dhar (erotic linocuts).

(Review by: Mondial - Andrew Moore)