About this ebook
A coming of age novel set in post-war France by an author who " launched the modern genre of the lesbian paperback" (Susan Stryker, author of Queer Pulp).
When eighteen-year-old Cécile is orphaned at the end of World War II, the curious and adventurous Catholic student finds refuge in Paris, and with an older man. A former member of the Resistance with Cécile's parents, Maurice is handsome, a thrilling cultured patron of the arts, and a mentor eager to introduce the budding young author to his intimate circle of friends—Cocteau, Sartre, and Eartha Kitt! As liberating an influence as he is, Maurice also encourages Cécile to shed her inhibitions he sees as bourgeois. Possessing a sensual and passionate temperament, Cécile is eager to begin exploring—by sharing Maurice's mistress, and writing of every life-changing and delightfully scandalous new experience.
Credited with penning the first, candidly lesbian novel— Women's Barracks, in 1950—Tereska Torrès "scandalized mid-century America" ( The New York Times). In By Cécile, written in 1963, "Madame Torres has re-imagined a youthful Colette (here called Cécile) in the infinitely seductive post-World War II period in Paris, where she moves like a sleeping princess through the perverse fairy tales of man-made cafe society. [It's] a sharply perceptive novel" (Joan Schenkar, author of The Talented Miss Highsmith).
When eighteen-year-old Cécile is orphaned at the end of World War II, the curious and adventurous Catholic student finds refuge in Paris, and with an older man. A former member of the Resistance with Cécile's parents, Maurice is handsome, a thrilling cultured patron of the arts, and a mentor eager to introduce the budding young author to his intimate circle of friends—Cocteau, Sartre, and Eartha Kitt! As liberating an influence as he is, Maurice also encourages Cécile to shed her inhibitions he sees as bourgeois. Possessing a sensual and passionate temperament, Cécile is eager to begin exploring—by sharing Maurice's mistress, and writing of every life-changing and delightfully scandalous new experience.
Credited with penning the first, candidly lesbian novel— Women's Barracks, in 1950—Tereska Torrès "scandalized mid-century America" ( The New York Times). In By Cécile, written in 1963, "Madame Torres has re-imagined a youthful Colette (here called Cécile) in the infinitely seductive post-World War II period in Paris, where she moves like a sleeping princess through the perverse fairy tales of man-made cafe society. [It's] a sharply perceptive novel" (Joan Schenkar, author of The Talented Miss Highsmith).
A coming of age novel set in post-war France by an author who " launched the modern genre of the lesbian paperback" (Susan Stryker, author of Queer Pulp).
When eighteen-year-old Cécile is orphaned at the end of World War II, the curious and adventurous Catholic student finds refuge in Paris, an...
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About the author
Tereska Torres (1923-2012) escaped Nazi-occupied France in 1940 and became a secretary to Free French leader Charles DeGaulle in London. Over her long career, she wrote some 20 books (novels and memoirs), with translations published here by Knopf, Dell, Simon and Schuster. Torres married the American literary figure Meyer Levin during the war; he would later translate many of her novels. Torres continued to live and write in France until her death at age 92.
Tereska Torres (1923-2012) escaped Nazi-occupied France in 1940 and became a secretary to Free French leader Charles DeGaulle in London. Over her long career, she wrote some 20 books (novels and memoirs), with translations published here by Knopf, Dell, Simon and Schuster. Torres married the Amer...
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