Lilith's Legacy: Prose Poems and Short Stories

by Renée Vivien

Bringing together four entire collections of the prose poems and short stories of the lesbian Symbolist “Renée Vivien” (Pauline Mary Tarn, 1877-1909), the current volume is compromised predominately of works which have never before appeared in English. It is as much by virtue of her idiosyncrasies as because of her considerable artistry that Pauline Tarn/Renée Vivien was, and remains, an extremely interesting figure. She had the rare privilege of combining a very considerable technical skill and intellectual brilliance with a vivid and versatile imagination and a literary standpoint that was unique in its day. That standpoint remains unusual even now, although historical circumstances have become much more hospitable to its potential appreciation in the last quarter of a century and her work is certainly more likely to find a sympathetic and understanding audience today than ever before.

The four collections in this volume are: Fjord Mists, From Green to Violet, The She-Wolf Lady, and Christ, Aphrodite and Monsieur Pépin.

Genres: Poetry, Short Stories, Fiction, LGBT

230 pages, Paperback

First published July 16, 2018

About the author

Renée Vivien, born Pauline Mary Tarn, was a British poet who wrote in the French language. She took to heart all the mannerisms of Symbolism, as one of the last poets to claim allegiance to the school. Her compositions include sonnets, hendecasyllabic verse, and prose poetry.

Renée's poetry and novels show several sources of inspiration: Natalie Barney, Violet Shilleto, Pierre Louys, and Sappho. Natalie inspired retellings of their relationship through prose and poem. Violet Shilleto, Renée's childhood friend and love who died in 1901, appears in Renée's work through repeated images of violets and the color purple. Pierre Louys's sensual "Songs of Bilitis" and Sappho's evocative poems about women-love influenced Renée's poetic style. Sappho, in particular, became an icon for Renée--she translated the work of Sappho into modern French, and even traveled with Natalie to Lesbos in an attempt to revive a women's artist colony on the island.

Reviews

[Egaeus Press / · Rating 3 out of 5]

The ‘She-Wolf Lady’ section of this book may well deserve five stars; a beautiful, pitch-black, brutally nihilistic set of stories. The rest, however, primarily vignettes and prose poems, I found too often repetitive, mannered or simply pointless.
Still, ‘The She-Wolf Lady’ alone makes it worth the price of admission.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

A diabolically entertaining book...

[Karl]

This hardcover is limited to 60 copies.

[Kalyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorites in order of appearance:

The Winds
The Beggar Woman
The Undine
The Legend of the Willow
Lilith
The Idea Store
The Lovers of Death
Latona and Niobe
The She-Wolf Lady
Prince Charming
The Cruelty of Precious Stones
Paradoxical Chastity
Christ

This book is broken into 4 sections, I liked the first Fjord Mists a lot. The second section From Green to Violet is probably the weakest. The She-Wolf Lady, the third section is another favorite where things break into more of short story tellings rather than prose and the last section entitled Christ, Aphrodite and Monsieur Pepin only has two entries. A nice closer.

[Vultural · Rating 3 out of 5]

Vivien, Renée - Lilith’s Legacy

Vivien was a writer / poet of the 1890’s. The interior blurb about her read “... a kind of tragic symbolic embodiment of the Belle Époch: a neurotic, anorexic, alcoholic, suicidal lesbian, doomed to self-destruction.”
What an irresistible introduction!

The book is filled with prose poems from the salon era. They range from subtle and delicate to swooning declarations.
Some were heady perfume, more than a few angry or bitter, others poignant. A few were so over the top, however, that I envisioned Margaret Dumont, hand to her forehead, emoting feverishly.

Greek maidens, prone to dolor, dream of Hamadryads and Psappa.
Odd folktales mix with fables, even, quite surprisingly, a couple stories set in the Wild West.

I must confess I enjoyed these more than I thought I would.
Snuggly Press is to be commended to resurrecting lost titles. I believe they have two additional Vivien titles.