Full name: Marthe: The Story of a Whore

Author: Joris-Karl Huysmans Year: 1876 Rank: Rating: Original Rating: Pop Rating: Genres/categories: Purchase/reserch links: LibraryThing Goodreads Amazon ISBNs: 9781903517475 1903517478

Capturing the lively linguistic inventiveness of the original, this fresh telling also includes an introduction and comprehensive notes. First published in 1876, Marthe was an important landmark in J.K. Huysmans's literary career, his first excursion into the novel, which propelled him into the growing ranks of the Naturalist movement. Marthe was one of the first French novels to directly address the subject of prostitution, which later became a central theme for many novelists, Impressionist painters and poets. Set in and around the demi-monde of the Parisian music hall, it centers on a would-be actress, Marthe, who works in one of the lowest dives in Paris, who tells the story of her brief, and ultimately doomed, relationship with Leo, a romantic searching for something to take the place of his lost illusions.