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This enduring classic of Mexican literature traces the path to ruination of a country girl, Santa, who moves to Mexico City after she is impregnated and abandoned by her lover and subsequently shunned by her family. Once in the city, Santa turns to prostitution and soon gains prominence as Mexico City's most sought-after courtesan. Despite the opportunities afforded by her success, including the chance to quit prostitution, Santa is propelled by her personal demons toward her ultimate downfall. This evocative novel-justly famous for its vividly detailed depiction of the cityscape and the city's customs, social interactions, and political activities-assumed singular importance in Mexican popular culture after its original publication in 1903. The book inspired Mexico's first \"talkie\" and several other film adaptations, a music score, a radio series, a television soap opera, and a pornographic comic book.Naturalist writer Federico Gamboa, who was also a lawyer and politician, reveals much about Mexican mores and culture at the start of the twentieth century and beyond, from expectations regarding gender roles to the myth of the corrupting and decadent city. In describing how Santa is at the mercy of social problems beyond her control, Gamboa provides a rich historical portrayal of widespread conditions in the years leading to the Mexican Revolution.

A narcoleptic transvestite who yearns to become a transsexual dreams up elaborate musical numbers in which she's the star.

In his preface, the anonymous author ofCourtesans and Opiumdescribes his book as an act of penance for thirty years spent patronizing the brothels of Yangzhou. Written in the 1840s, his story is filled with vice and dark consequence, portraying the hazards of the city's seedy underbelly and warning others against the example of the Fool. Chinese literature's first true \"city novel,\"Courtesans and Opiumrecounts the illustrious career of a debauched soul enveloped by enthralling pursuits and romantic illusions. While socially acceptable marriages were arranged and often loveless, brothels offered men accomplished courtesans who served as both enchanting companions and sensual lovers. These professional sirens dressed in the latest styles and dripped with gold, silver, and jewels. From an early age, they were taught to excel at various arts and graces, which transformed the brothel into a kind of club for men to meet, exchange gossip, and smoke opium at their leisure. The Fool's fable follows five sworn brothers and their respective relationships with Yangzhou courtesans, revealing in acute detail the lurid materialism of this dangerous world-its violence and corruption as well as its seductive but illusory promise. Never before translated into English,Courtesans and Opiumoffers a brilliant window into the decadence of nineteenth-century China.

This article focuses on one emblematic figure of lesbian Montmartre during the belle époque, the notorious restaurateur Palmyre. After managing the lesbian brasserie La Souris in the 1890s, Palmyre opened her own establishment, Palmyr's Bar, opposite the Moulin Rouge in the early twentieth century. Palmyre's restaurants, the second of which catered to gays as well as lesbians, feature in police, judicial, and fiscal archives as well as the visual arts, journalism, fiction, and memoir. Palmyre's story, besides conveying a slice of lesbian life in Montmartre during the belle époque, illustrates the importance of lesbian and gay entrepreneurs and entertainers to the making of \"Gay Paree.\" Establishments like Palmyre's, no less than the bohemian cabarets and giant music halls, contributed to the development of commercialized mass culture in the city, while also providing community space and artistic outlets for Paris's gays and lesbians.

After an accident by a lake, Cata, a 14-year-old student, is left with an injury. Her school principal, German Arguello, rushes to her aid and stays by her side until her parents arrive. In the tense hours of waiting, they will reveal the secrets and stories that shaped their lives.

A magic realist novel set in Indonesia, where nothing is quite as it seems, and people are not whom they seem to be.