Catch Prince Narcissus And Other Stories Conveyed By Robert Scheffer Depicted In E-Text

titular novella is absolutely bonkers, and rather appropriately invokes a lot of the imagery I would associate with James Bidgood.
Heliogabalian decadent orgies festooned with shells and pearls and golden sand,

The rest of the stories are pretty neat too, a real peculiarity from the movement that Scheffer remains somewhat obscure, this tome doesn't even contain a brief bio on the man.
"One evening in the early spring, after a long walk in the luminous and deserted Rumanian countryside, the young man had a slight feverish chill.
He went to bed and as soon as he was asleep he began to speak, He stammered: 'I am the Virgin, the Prostitute I am the Prostitute, the Virgin', and indulging in this antithesis repeated it to satiety.
And then, a brief voice concluded 'I am Love, ' "

Crikey! This is obviously going to be something of a hard circle to square for our lead character Prince Mitrophane Moreano as if he didn't have other issues to contend with such as an obsession with his own beauty and the effects of time upon it, collecting portraits certain types and the stalking of pretty youths, not to mention his major obsession with mirrors, from which he obtains his nickname.
He is an extraordinary character, delicate, effete, lisping, madeup, definitely neurotic and

filthy rich, in other words the archetypal camp decadent.
Moreano is probably based on Robert de Montesquiou supposedly also an inspiration for Huysmans Des Esseintes and Proust's Baron de Charlus but it is also tempting to wonder if the Prince is an attempt to externalize or advertise! Scheffer's own inclinations/opinions on the matter in relation to his own homosexuality.


Are there any drugs involved Oh yes! Cross dressing Yep! Occultism, A touch. Amatory unorthodoxy Could be

Is it all a terrible decadent mess crammed intoodd pages Perhaps surprisingly, no,

Of course its all appears rather silly, and it is glorious over the top silliness, but strip out ourst century cynicism and it becomes a tale of individual identity crisis, a portrait of a person struggling to resolve his desires and how they might be reconciled the obsession with mirrors, and what they reveal, is that really 'me' the driver of the plot.


If you like Jean Lorrain, or Stenbock then you will absolutely love this story and it deserves to be recognized as one of the great decadent tales.
How has it languished untranslated for so long A mystery,

On the basis of the brilliance of the main story, the publishers blurb one might cause one to fear the four additional tales are just fillers.
"Broad range" can sometimes mean "other stuff in different genres that just aren't as good" but once again, my cynicism is dashed because they are all extremely readable.
'The Stranger' is perhaps the most straightforward, a story in the Maupassant mode, a mysterious woman and her past loves narrated by another lover, while 'AnntjöMö' and 'The Atonement' perhaps nod more to Poe.
In 'AnntjöMö' an old woman asks her mentally retarded son to help her, with unexpected results, and in 'The Atonement' the death of a loving wife reveals a secret, that in turn reveals another perhaps even worse depending on your sympathies.


'The Other' has some similarities to the titular story in that it is tale of identity crisis and/or obsession but perhaps this one is more overtly indebted to the theories of the emergent practice of psychology than the 'Prince'.
Scheffer was certainly aware of the debates around Charcot and hypnosis as later in his career he wrote a 'Grand Guignol' based upon the famous Bompard murder case ofin which the Charcot and Nancy schools of psychiatry went head to head in the courtroom over criminal responsibility.
Innocent or guilty Virgin or prostitute, . .

Shefferwas actually born Schaeffer and came from a religious background, his father being a pastor, After studying music and literature he married a Russian woman and probably through her became librarian to Queen Elisabeth of Romania perhaps significantly Romeano is Rumanian.
In his later years he was a journalist and poet authoring some twenty books and living a predominantly homosexual lifestyle tainted with scandal, possibly because of his association with Jacques d'AdelswärdFersen, the 'Exile of Capri'.


Fersen, uberrich with a penchant for narcotics and youths or as I would say, a drug taking pedophile, would republish 'Price Narcissus' in his magazine 'Akademos' in.
One can easily see why it might appeal to those of the Uranian persuasion,

Whether this contributed to Scheffer's fall from public favour is unknown at least to me but by all accounts he died poor and largely forgotten.
This obscurity is certainly not helped by the absence of an introduction to the volume under review not even his birth and death dates! and I've docked a star because of that.


Scheffer is a classic example of the fact that having an objectionable personality does not preclude you from doing producing interesting work and Prince Narcissus' is is a very strong collection definitely worth seeking out.
Recommended!

limited tohardcover copies "No doubt this city is in love with itself, For cities do not grow at random in a specific place like plants, but a will presides over their birth.
They are a rich and complex body animated by a spirit, They are born, develop, catch diseases, and die, Their appearance conforms to the spirit that created them and it chooses carefully the site they occupy, so that it is in perfect harmony with itself.


But the soul of Venice is as peculiar as the city she inhabits, She is of a unique beauty, she has realized her dream in precious and solid architecture and according to rhythms unknown to others, who came before her.
" Appearing here in English for the first time, in a translation by Shawn Garrett, is Robert Scheffers minor masterpiece of decadence, Prince Narcissus.
Glutted with overthetop imagery and set largely against a backdrop of Venice, it tells, in glistening prose, of the bizarre suffering of Prince Mitrophane Moreano, impassioned by his own image and armed against fleeting youth with only the science of the cosmetic box and his singular madness.


Included in the current volume are four additional tales which show Scheffers broad range, covering the grounds of the conte cruel, horror, the occult, and the naturalist nouvelle.


CONTENTS
"Prince Narcissus"
"AnntjöMö"
"The Atonement" L'Expiation
"The Other" L'autre
"The Stranger" LÉtrangère.