Imre: A Memorandum

Under the pseudonym Xavier Mayne, the journalist and world traveler Edward Irenaeus Prime-Stevenson self-published the novel Imre: A Memorandum in 1906. Based on the axiom “The Friendship which is Love – the Love which is Friendship”, the author develops a special relationship between a young hungarian officer and an intellectual and sensitive middle-aged man. After many doubts, equivocal exchanges and dodged expectations, attraction will end up becoming stronger than prudence and the force of social pressures. A friendship dissected down to its limits leads to a declaration of love in this regulated military society and the social context of the Belle Époque. A fascinating novel written by an author who is a pioneer of fundamental rights for homosexuals.