Las Locas de Postín y El Fuego de Lesbos – Plastic Books
Las Locas de Postín y El Fuego de Lesbos – Plastic Books

Las Locas de Postín y El Fuego de Lesbos

DOS BIGOTES
ÁLVARO RETANA, DIMAS PRYCHYSLYY
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Regular price €18,95 EUR
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Pages
176 pp.
Language
Spanish
Publisher
Dos Bigotes
Year
2024
ISBN
9788412765748
Dimensions
14.0 x 1.1 x 21.0 cm
Written by
Álvaro Retana and Dimas Prychyslyy

Álvaro Retana, who proclaimed himself the "handsomest writer in the world," always knew that the important thing was to be talked about, especially if it was negatively. A master of the ironic and frivolous pen, homoeroticism, and farce, he was one of the great Spanish writers of the first half of the 20th century, fallen into oblivion over the years. This unforgivable injustice is what this new edition of Las «locas» de postín and El fuego de Lesbos, for the first time in a single volume, aims to repair.

With its balanced doses of humor and lightheartedness, Retana's novels were very well received in the twenties and thirties, showing a Spain breathing the modern airs coming from other European countries. The protagonists of these comedies of errors — whose names mostly concealed real people from the author's circle — were decadent aesthetes, salacious artists, gallant writers, and above all, libertine aristocrats who tested the prevailing moral codes. An illusion of freedom that would vanish with the outbreak of the Civil War and Franco's dictatorship.

Las «locas» de postín and El fuego de Lesbos are two novels that portray with firsthand knowledge the gay, lesbian, and bisexual scene during the happy twenties. Both works present a succession of where the most diverse ambassadors of the third sex roam freely, transformists causing a sensation in Madrid theaters, and marchionesses deceived by their girlfriends and lovers; characters who are forerunners of the camp and festive aesthetic of authors like Eduardo Mendicutti or Luis Antonio de Villena and filmmakers like Pedro Almodóvar. As Dimas Prychyslyy concludes in the prologue to this edition, "every legend deserves to be adorned. Retana, without a doubt, has been one for a long time."

About Álvaro Retana

Álvaro Retana (1890-1970) was the son of politician, diplomat, and writer Wenceslao Retana and Adela Ramírez de Arellano. He is considered the best author of erotic novels of the early 20th century. He was also a journalist, fashion designer, illustrator, costume designer, and cuplé lyricist, as well as a scholar of popular genres and an innovator of Spanish stage design. Lighthearted and frivolous, in his more than sixty novels one can find most of the sexual "transgressions" of the time, such as sadomasochistic, homosexual, and bisexual relationships, threesomes, or quartets. During Primo de Rivera's dictatorship, and after the persecution of erotic writers, he was prosecuted and imprisoned. He stayed in Madrid during the Civil War, where he continued his literary career and collaborations in the entertainment world. He was sentenced to death in 1939, although the sentence was commuted and he was released in 1948. He was never able to write erotic novels again nor see his designs on stage. Until the end of his days, he fought against censorship and social conventions.


Title
Las Locas de Postín y El Fuego de Lesbos
Author
Álvaro Retana, Dimas Prychyslyy
Publisher
Dos Bigotes
Year
2024
Language
Español
Pages
176 pp.
Binding
Soft
ISBN
9788412765748
Categories
Ficción clásica , Ficción literaria , Ficción por género
LGTBIQ+ representation
Lésbica / sáfica , Queer
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