Primarily about the love affair between Teleny and Des Grieux, Teleny is also groundbreaking in its character of Briancourt, a dandy who threatens to out the narrator.
'After I had gulped down a glass or two of champagne, I felt revived
by the exhilarating wine: our conversation men turned on the concert,
and although I longed to ask my mother if she knew anything about
Teleny, still I durst not utter the name which was foremost on my lips,
nay I had even to restrain myself not to repeat it aloud every now and
then.
'At last my mother spoke of him herself, commending first his playing
and then his beauty.
'“What, do you find him good-looking?” I asked abruptly. '“I should
think so,” replied she, arching her eyebrows in an astonished way, “is
there anybody who does not? Every woman finds him an Adonis; but then
you men differ so much from us in your admiration for your own sex that
you sometimes find insipid those whom we are taken up with. Anyhow, he
is sure to succeed as an artist, as all the ladies will be falling in
love with him.”
'I tried not to wince upon hearing these last words, but do what I
could, it was impossible to keep my features quite motionless. 'My
mother seeing me frown, added, smilingly: '“What, Camille, are you
going to become as vain as some acknowledged belle, who cannot hear
anybody made much of without feeling that any praise given to another
woman is so much subtracted from what is due to her?”
'“All women are free to fall in love with him if they choose,” I
answered snappishly, “you know quite well that I never piqued myself
either on my good looks or upon my conquests.”
'“No, it is true, still today you are like the dog in the manger, for
what is it to you whether the women are taken up with him or not,
especially if it is such a help to him in his career?”
'“But cannot an artist rise to eminence by his talent alone?”
'“Sometimes,” added she with an incredulous smile, “though seldom,
and only with that superhuman perseverance which gifted persons often
lack, and Teleny—”
'My mother did not finish her phrase in words, but the expression of
her face, and above all of the corners of her mouth, revealed her
thoughts.
'“And you think that this young man is such a degraded being as to
allow himself to be kept by a woman, like a—”
'“Well, it is not exactly being kept—at least, he would not
consider it in that light. He might, moreover, allow himself to be
helped in a thousand ways otherwise than by money, but his piano would
be his gagne-pain.”
'“Just like the stage is for most ballet-girls; then I should not
like to be an artist.”
'“Oh! they are not the only men who owe their success to a 'stress or
to a wife. Read Bel Ami, and you will see that many a successful
man, and even more than one celebrated personage, owes his greatness
to—”
'“A woman?”
'“Exactly; it is always: Cherchez la femme.”
'“Then this is a disgusting world.”
'“Having to live in it, we must take the best of it we can, and not
take matters quite so tragically as you do.”
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Bisexual
