num_pages: 94
description: "It was with Alexis that, in 1929, Marguerite Yourcenar began her career as a novelist. Few literary debuts in this centry are quite as astonishing; for this profound analysis of a man's homosexuality was written by a young woman of only twenty-four. The novel takes the form of a letter from a young musician, Alexis, to his wife Monique, whom he loves and who has just given birth to their son. His letter declares, however, that he can no longer continue in the marriage, that he must obey the demands of his own sexuality, against which he has struggled in vain, to achieve a freedom without which he cannot live. His apologia pro vita sua embodies a deep sense of man's fated existence in this world and the ways in which experiences shape a life.Alexis was a daring book for its time in its exploration of sexuality and in the distinction its protagonist insists upon between pleasure and love. Although it is the earliest of Marguerite Yourcenar's works it is as accomplished as any she has written."--Back cover
language: English
title: ALEXIS.
titlecomplete: ALEXIS.
genres: Drama, Adult, Literature, French Literature, LGBT, Classics, Queer, Historical Fiction, Fiction, France
ratings_count: 1782
publisher: Black Swan