Woman and Puppet

About twelve years ago Oscar Wilde dedicated his beautiful Salome thus: “À mon Ami Pierre Louÿs.” At that time not many gentlemen in England knew the name of the writer who was to become famous throughout the Land of the Mind as author of Aphrodite. His earliest fame here was to be enshrined in that dedication.

Afterwards, in The Spirit Lamp, he had the honour and pleasure of putting into a French sonnet one of the prose poems that Wilde used to put into the post as letters. Suddenly, about ten years ago, every one in the republic of French letters was praising a new and wonderful book, Aphrodite. It was the most amazing study of antiquity since the Salambo of Flaubert or the Mary Magdalen of Edgar Saltus. The beautiful girl in the romance by Louÿs captivated a continent. She was, indeed, mystérieuse et victorieuse