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Lot 136
13.02.2025 10:00UTC +00:00
Classic
Sold
£ 12 600
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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The auction is completed. No bids can be placed anymore.
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ID 1362797
Lot 136 | [ANON]
Estimate value
£ 7 000 – 10 000
[ANON]
Teleny or The Reverse of the Medal A Physiological Romance of To-day. Cosmopoli: [London: Leonard Smithers], 1893.
Rare first edition of one of the earliest homoerotic novels in English, sometimes attributed to Oscar Wilde. Number 153 of 200 copies only. Aleister Crowley, who was convinced of Wilde's role, underlined the importance of Teleny, irrespective of who wrote it: 'with the exception of Verlaine in Hombres, and Wilde in Teleny [...] nobody in modern times has dared to voice openly [...] the passion between man and man' (quoted in Mendes). The authorship, however, remains uncertain, and is more likely to have been a collaborative effort: 'Wilde had some part in revising the original MS, which appears to have been passed (c.1889-90) from hand to hand among a homosexual circle [...] of acolytes surrounding Wilde before he met Lord Alfred Douglas' (Mendes). A later edition of Teleny was censored, and it was not until 1986 that another edition returned the text to this original. The small edition size and subject matter have ensured that very few copies have survived.

2 volumes in one, octavo (184 x 122mm). Half-titles (recto and verso of first and last leaves browned from end-papers). Contemporary quarter green cloth over marbled boards, red morocco title label gilt on spine, (edges slightly rubbed). Provenance: Barry Humphries (1934-2023; bookplate).
Auction house category:Books, Books and manuscripts
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
8 King Street, St. James's
SW1Y 6QT London
United Kingdom
Preview
13.02.2025 – 13.02.2025
Phone +44 (0)20 7839 9060
Email
4FQ.AYGKAGLUQ@FO3G@
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