Sphinx
A Neo-Gothic Novel from Brazil
Published on 30. September 2023
Book
Paperback/Softback
270 pages
978-1-60329-623-6 (ISBN)
Description
A work of supernatural fantasy that questions gender divisions.
At his boardinghouse in Rio de Janeiro, the Englishman James Marian is seen as handsome but eccentric. Then another boarder learns Marian's secret: a fusion of a female head and a male body, Marian is the creation of a surgeon with occult powers. Despite his wealth and mysterious abilities, Marian is unable to live fully as either a man or a woman, traveling the world in order to repress his sexual desire and withdraw from society.
Sphinx (Esfinge) explores the binaries of science and magic, body and spirit, male and female, attraction and horror, presenting its sexually ambiguous protagonist with sympathy. Ornately descriptive, this 1908 neo-gothic novel exemplifies the era's taste for the sensual and the fantastic. With echoes of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, it stands as a classic of Brazilian science fiction.
At his boardinghouse in Rio de Janeiro, the Englishman James Marian is seen as handsome but eccentric. Then another boarder learns Marian's secret: a fusion of a female head and a male body, Marian is the creation of a surgeon with occult powers. Despite his wealth and mysterious abilities, Marian is unable to live fully as either a man or a woman, traveling the world in order to repress his sexual desire and withdraw from society.
Sphinx (Esfinge) explores the binaries of science and magic, body and spirit, male and female, attraction and horror, presenting its sexually ambiguous protagonist with sympathy. Ornately descriptive, this 1908 neo-gothic novel exemplifies the era's taste for the sensual and the fantastic. With echoes of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, it stands as a classic of Brazilian science fiction.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Dimensions
Height: 214 mm
Width: 138 mm
Thickness: 20 mm
Weight
376 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-60329-623-6 (9781603296236)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Henrique Maximiano Coelho Neto (1864-1934) was a Brazilian writer, professor, and politician based in Rio de Janeiro. He is best known for his portrayals of political upheaval and social change during Rio's belle epoque. Nominated for the Nobel Prize in 1932, Coelho Neto was one of Brazil's most prolific and widely read authors during the first decades of the twentieth century.