Description
Book SynopsisWinner of the 2003 Silver Medal for Gay/Lesbian Fiction, ForeWord Magazine
Imre is one of the first openly gay American novels without a tragic ending. Described by the author as “a little psychological romance,” the narrative follows two men who meet by chance in a café; in Budapest, where they forge a friendship that leads to a series of mutual revelations and gradual disclosures. With its sympathetic characterizations of homosexual men, Imre’s 1906 publication marked a turning point in English literature.
This edition includes material relating to the novels origins, contemporary writings on homosexuality, other writings by Prime-Stevenson, and a contemporary review.
Trade Review“Like Whitman’s noiseless, patient spider, Prime-Stevenson’s homosexual characters spin out threads of mutual recognition and loving affirmation. An invaluable literary document, Imre is also an unexpectedly absorbing fiction, here accompanied by an excellent scholarly apparatus.” — John W. Crowley, editor of Genteel Pagan: The Double Life of Charles Warren Stoddard
“Not only are we given Prime-Stevenson’s text in the most readable form it has ever enjoyed, but also an eloquent introduction that illuminates both the life of this mysterious author and the historical and literary significance of this, his most important work, and a fascinating sequence of appendices. This edition is a piece of scholarship as exciting as it is rigorous.” — David Leavitt and Mark Mitchell, editors of Pages Passed From Hand to Hand: The Hidden Tradition of Literature in English from 1748 to 1914
“This edition shows how carefully the novel is positioned geographically at the very margins of Europe at the very end of the Belle Époque, and hownearly a century after its compositionthe novel not only has a good deal to say about its day, but also our own.” — David Bergman, Towson University, author of Gaiety Transfigured
Table of ContentsAcknowledgements
Introduction
Edward Prime-Stevenson:A Brief Chronology
A Note on the Text
Imre: A Memorandum
Introduction to the Appendices
Appendix A: On the Origin of Imre
Appendix B: The Medical Establishment and Homosexuality—A Sample Case Study
Appendix C: Homosexuality and the Artistic Temperament
Appendix D: Excerpts from The Intersexes (1908)
Appendix E: From Life to Fiction
Appendix F: “The Most Peculiar Friend I Have Ever Had”
Appendix G: A Contemporary Review of Imre
Works Cited and Recommended Reading
