The Italian Invert - by Michael Rosenfeld (Paperback)

About the Book

"Adapted and translated from Confessions d'un homosexuel áa âEmile Zola: Premiáere âedition non censurâee du "Roman d'un inverti," edited by Michael Rosenfeld [copyright] 2017 Nouvelles âEditions Place"--Verso.

Book Synopsis

"Each of us has his tastes inscribed in his brain and heart; whether he fulfills his urges with regret or with joy, he must fulfill them. He should let others act according to their own nature. It's fate that creates us and guides us throughout our lives: to fight against it would be little more than fruitless, foolish, and reckless!"

In the late 1880s, a dashing young Italian aristocrat made an astonishing confession to the novelist Émile Zola. In a series of revealing letters, he frankly described his sexual experiences with other men--including his seduction as a teenager by one of his father's friends and his first love affair, with a sergeant during his military service--as well as his "extraordinary" personality. Judging it too controversial, Zola gave it to a young doctor, who in 1896 published a censored version in a medical study on sexual inversion, as homosexuality was then known. When the Italian came across this book, he was shocked to discover how his life story had been distorted. In protest, he wrote a long, daring, and unapologetic letter to the doctor defending his right to love and to live as he wished.

This book is the first complete, unexpurgated version in English of this remarkable queer autobiography. Its text is based on the recently discovered manuscript of the Italian's letter to the doctor. It also features an introduction tracing the textual history of the documents, analytical essays, and additional materials that help place the work in its historical context. Offering a striking glimpse of gay life in Europe in the late nineteenth century, The Italian Invert brings to light the powerful voice of a young man who forthrightly expressed his desires and eloquently affirmed his right to pleasure.

Review Quotes

A brilliant archival discovery, a triumph of careful scholarship, an unsuspected episode in modern literature, a moving testimony about sex and love, and a fascinating, previously censored chapter in the history of sexuality. Rosenfeld masterfully restores the context in which conscious writing about homosexuality emerged in Europe during the last decades of the nineteenth century.--David Halperin, W. H. Auden Distinguished University Professor, University of Michigan

The contributors to this brilliantly edited and translated text make the queer past come alive. Readers will not only recognize a young man's struggle with his gender and sexual identities, but also the difficulty he had in telling his own story in a homophobic society.--Andrew Israel Ross, author of Public City/Public Sex: Homosexuality, Prostitution, and Urban Culture in Nineteenth-Century Paris

Whether you persist in reading it as a proto-naturalist novel (despite the opinions of the editors of this volume) or treat it as a sociological document, The Italian Invert is a classic text of nineteenth-century sexology the interest of which is by no means limited to French (or Italian) studies. Richly enhanced here with critical notes, this volume makes a revised and expanded version of the primary documents available in English and also adds important essays that situate and enlarge their scope. The text reflects the latest archival discoveries, which include manuscripts and illustrations, as well as new information about the mysterious "Dr. Laupts." Whether one is interested in the history of (homo)sexuality or in literary questions (such as the "queerness" of Zola), this is an indispensable tool that belongs on every researcher's shelf.--Melanie Hawthorne, Texas A&M University

About the Author

Michael Rosenfeld holds two doctorates, one in French literature and civilization from the Sorbonne Nouvelle-Paris 3 University and one in French language and literature from the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium.

William A. Peniston is the retired librarian and archivist at the Newark Museum of Art, as well as a historian of France. His books include Pederasts and Others: Urban Culture and Sexual Identity in Nineteenth-Century Paris (2004).

Nancy Erber is professor emerita of modern languages and literature at the City University of New York. With Peniston, she edited and translated Queer Lives: Men's Autobiographies from Nineteenth-Century France (2007).