Flowers of Ether

Delphi Fabrice's Flowers of Ether, originally appearing as a serial in the "literary supplement" of the daily newspaper La Lanterne, and here rediscovered and translated by Brian Stableford, is, without question, one of the most outrageous entries into the canon of the Decadent Movement. At once an extremely unreliable gossip column, a lost gay novel, and one of the author's more brazen attempts at sensationalism, Flowers of Ether revolves around the adventures of the perverse and mysterious Jean des Glaïeuls, amidst theatres and salons, fortifs and lesbian bordellos. Exploring the seamier side of Parisian social life at the turn of the previous century, Fabrice's novel, replete with bizarre personalities, drug use, orgies and dubious romances, is an intriguing and highly readable text, the perfume of which will intoxicate despite its depravity.