PIERRE

See also:

• PIERRE LOUYS (187o– )

LOUYS (187o– )  , French novelist and poet, was born in Paris on the loth of December 1870 . When he was nineteen he founded a review, La Conque, which brought him into contact with the leaders of the Parnassians, and counted Swinburne, Maeterlinck, Mallarme and others among its contributors . He won notoriety by his novel Aphrodite (1896), which gave a vivid picture of Alexandrian morals at thebeginning of the Christian era . His Chansons de Bilitis, roman lyrique (1894), which purported to be a translation from the Greek, is a glorification of Sapphic love, which in subject-matter is objectionable in the highest degree; but its delicate decadent prose is typical of a modern French literary school, and some of the " songs " were set to music by Debussy and others . Later books are: La Femme et le pantin (1898); Les Aventures du roi Pausole (1900); Sanguines (1903); Archipel (1906) . Louys married in 1899 Louise de Heredia, younger daughter of the poet .