The Prelude to Teleny

<p><I>The Prelude to Teleny</I> (1899) is an erotic novel published anonymously yet often attributed to Irish playwright Oscar Wilde. A loosely related prequel to the novel <I>Teleny</I> (1893) which is considered one of the first works of fiction to openly depict homosexuality <I>The Prelude to Teleny</I> is the story of a young girl's sexual awakening and subsequent downfall as well as of the son she bears. My childhood was a very dull one. I am hardly certain whether I remember my mother or not for I was only about two years old when she died. By an effort it seems to me that I can recollect having been taken into a dark hushed room where she was asleep-of having been lifted on a couch and made to kiss her. Her face was as white as marble seemed quite as cold; so that the contact of my warm lips with that clammy flesh produced an indelible impression upon me. Before she was reduced to this lifeless state Camille Des Grieux was a young girl with her whole life ahead of her. On a sultry night in the south of France she has her first sexual experience with a strange young drifter. Unsure if this was a real or just an intense dream she wakes in the morning with a strange new sensation and soon finds evidence of another's presence all around her room. Filled with brief scenes of romance and lust between its insatiable cast of characters <I>The Prelude to Teleny</I> is an erotic novel that continues to entertain shock and surprise over a century after it was published. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript this edition of <I>The Prelude to Teleny</I> is a classic work of Victorian erotica reimagined for modern readers.</p>