Isolated but especially characteristic phenomena of the sexual life have also found expression in poetry. Thus Ernst von Wolzogen, in “Das Dritte Geschlect,” describes the various types of emancipated women; the same question forms the theme of “Die Neue Eva,” by Maria Janitschek. Anna Mahr, also, in Gerhart Hauptmann’s “Einsame Menschen,” is such a type. In all of these the conflict between woman and personality is described; and this is done with exceptional force and clearness in “Das Neue Weib,” by M. Janitschek.[801]
The contrast to the woman who wishes to become a personality is to be found in the woman who has never possessed a personality, or who has lost it, the woman who has become only a chattel, an object of enjoyment for man—the prostitute. I alluded before ([p. 315]) to the fact that Margarete Böhme, in her sensational “Diary of a Lost Woman,” was not the first to describe the life of a prostitute. Already from the sixteenth century there date such romances as, for example, the celebrated “Lozana Andaluza” of Francisco Delgado; also Defoe’s “History of Moll Flanders,” and Abbé Prévost’s “Manon Lescaut” (both belonging to the eighteenth century). Besides the “Memoirs of a Hamburg Prostitute” (vide supra, [p. 315]), there exist still other precursors, belonging to the nineteenth century, of the “Diary of a Lost Woman,” such as E. de Goncourt’s “Fille Elisa,” Leon Leipsiger’s “Ballhaus-Anna,” etc. The “Diary of a Lost Woman” naturally soon found imitations, such as Hedwig Hard’s “Confessions of a Fallen Woman,” the “Diary of Another Lost Woman”; and the purely pornographic “History of Josephine Mutzenbecher, a Viennese Prostitute,” Daudet’s “Sapho,” Zola’s “Nana,” Cristian Krogh’s “Albertine,” and George Moore’s “Esther Waters,” belong to the same class.[802]
Brothel life and the life of prostitution, in all their relationships to modern civilization, and in their influence upon human character, are described by Frank Wedekind in “Die Büchse der Pandora” (“Pandora’s Box”) and in his “Hidalla”; and with exceptional vividness by Oscar Metenier, in his romance cycle, extending to seven volumes, “Tartufes et Satyres.”
The rôle of alcohol and of syphilis in the sexual life have also been discussed in belletristic literature. In Gerhart Hauptmann’s “Vor Sonnenaufgang” (“Before Sunrise”), Loth abandons his beloved Helne as soon as he learns that she springs from a degenerate family of drunkards. The disastrous consequences of syphilis are described by Ibsen in “Ghosts,” and recently most vividly by Brieux in “Les Avariés.”[803]
Extraordinarily comprehensive, especially in France, is the belletristic literature of sexual perversities. After the manner of the “Rougon-Macquart” series by Zola, Jean Larocque has written a romance cycle of eleven volumes, under the general title of “Les Voluptueuses” (the separate titles are: “Isey,” “Viviane,” “Odile,” “Fausta,” “Daphne,” “Phœbe,” “Fusette,” “La Naïade,” “Louvette,” “Lucine,” and “Hémine”; in the last volume we find even a discussion of copralagnistic details!). Some volumes of this series—for example, “Phœbe”—have even been translated into English. The works also of Baudelaire, Verlaine, and Guy de Maupassant, offer a rich material for the study of psychopathia sexualis. In this connexion I may also mention the poetic collections “La Légende des Sexes,” by Edmond Haraucourt; “Rimes de Joie,” by Théodore Hannon; and also the “Chants de Maldoror.” Octave Mirbeau also, in his “Journal d’une Femme de Chambre,” provides us with a review of the entire register of sexual perversities.[804] He, and also the talented Rachilde (who in her romances “Monsieur Venus,” “Les Hors Nature,” and “Madame Adonis,” considers the question of homosexuality), never fail to exhibit the artistic spirit in their descriptions of these delicate topics—and, indeed, l’art pour l’art doctrine seems to have been created especially in relation to this department of thought.
Homosexuality and bisexuality have been considered in such a large number of works that it is quite impossible to mention them all here. A fairly complete bibliography of these will be found in the volumes of the Annual for Sexual Intermediate Stages.[805] I can allude here only to a few especially well-known and artistically important homosexual romances and poems. Jouy, in his admirable “Galerie des Femmes” (Paris, 1799), devotes to the “Lesbiennes” a special chapter; Théophile Gautier, in “Mademoiselle de Maupin,” discusses the interesting problem of bisexuality; Zola, in “Nana,” represents the Lesbian relationship; Paul Verlaine in 1867 published tribadistic poetry under the title of “Les Amis.”[806] Since that time Englishmen, Germans, Belgians, and Italians have published belletristic descriptions of homosexual relationships. I may allude to Oscar Wilde’s “Dorian Grey,” Georges Eekhoud’s “Escal-Vigor,” Walt Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass,” Prime-Stevenson’s “Irenæus,” Louis d’Herdy’s “L’Homme-Sirene,” F. G. Pernauhm’s “Ercole Tomei,” “Die Infamen,” and “Der junge Kurt”; also the sensational “Idylle Sapphique” of the demi-mondaine Liane de Pougy, the epic “Ganymedes” of C. W. Geissler, and the drama “Jasminblüte” of Dilsner.
Masochism found its introduction to belles-lettres by the writer from whom the very name is derived, L. von Sacher-Masoch, more especially in “Vermächtnis Kains.” Of his novels, the best known is “Venus im Pelz”; others are “Galizischen Geschichten,” “Messalinen Wiens,” “Die schwarze Zarin,” and “Wiener Hofgeschichten.” He still remains the only writer who has treated this peculiar perversity in an artistic manner. The more recent masochistic and sadistic novels belong to the worst kind of hawker’s literature. Lou Andreas-Salomé only, in “Eine Ausschweifung,” has artistically described the spiritual masochism of a woman with the fine psychological characterization peculiar to her work.
Quite recently there has actually appeared a masochistic monthly magazine, entitled Geissel und Rute: Archiv für Erziehung [sic!] Erwachsener (Whip and Rod: Archives for the Education [sic!] of Adults), edited by C. vom Stein, Buda-Pesth. The first number appeared on February 1, 1907. It contains masochistic stories, correspondence, historical sketches, and advertisements.
Sadistic love is the theme of Oscar Wilde’s “Salome,” and of the “Diaboliques” of Barbey d’Aurevilly. The satanic element is dealt with in Huysmans’ “La Bas,” and in various novels by St. Przybyszewski. Herbert Eulenburg’s drama “Ritter Blaubart” also represents a sadistic type.
In conclusion, I may allude to some authors who represent to us the whole psychology of modern love, and, above all, the depths of the love of reflection, its spiritual refinement, all the manifold moods, illusions, and dreams of the modern eros. J. P. Jakobsen’s “Niels Lyhne,” Hans Jäger’s “Christiania-Bohême,” Oskar Mysing’s “Grosse Leidenschaft,” Heinrich Mann’s “Jagd nach Liebe,” Gabriele d’Annunzio’s “Il Piacere,” “Trionfo della Morte,” and “Fuoco,” represent aspects of love. With the profoundest art, Lou Andreas-Salomé, in her stories—which in this respect I regard as among the most valuable products of modern literature—“Ruth,” “Fenitschka,” “Ma,” and “Menschenkinder,” represents the finer spiritual relationships between man and woman. This writer appears to possess the most intimate knowledge of the soul of the modern woman. Elisabeth Dauthendey, also (“Vom neuen Weibe und seiner Liebe”), Gabriele Reuter (“Liselotte von Reckling,” “Ellen von der Weiden”), and Rosa Mayreder (“Idole”), give most powerful descriptions of complicated feminine characters.[807] An important and interesting topic is discussed by Yvette Guilbert in “Les Demivieilles”—the psychology of the woman beginning to grow old, who cannot yet renounce love and yet is forced to do so by rude reality.