Des Grieux and the Origins of Teleny

Abstract

Scholarly discussions of the anonymous homoerotic novel Teleny (1893) invariably confront the question of its mysterious origins. This is understandable, since for many commentators what has been dubbed “the first gay modern novel” represents the opening chapter in a story about queer print culture that may (or may not) have been authored by Oscar Wilde. Joining the methodologies of bibliography and queer theory, with particular emphasis on temporal directionality and sequencing, this article offers new insight into Teleny s history in light of its virtually unknown 1899 prequel, Des Grieux (The Prelude to “Teleny”). “Des Grieux and the Origins of Teleny” represents the first detailed critical analysis of Teleny s literary progeny, and I pursue this analysis by attending to publishing history, authorial speculation, and both novels’ engagement with Victorian sexology. Although the bibliographer Peter Mendes avers that “Des Grieux was indeed written by the same hand(s) as Teleny, and possibly before Teleny at that,” I contend that its appearance six years after the first appearance of Teleny articulates a queer textual genealogy for the two novels, situating Teleny in an inverted relation to a prequel that postdates it.