The Angels and the Perverts
by: Lucie
mentions: Natalie, Renée, Hélène
publication date: 1930
A roman à clef which depicts the bigendered/intersex Marion (Mario) de Valdeclare, who navigates both the homosexual male and lesbian spaces of Paris as an asexual 'angel' amongst 'perverts.'
The novel depicts Natalie Barney's (in the form of the character Laurette Wells) attempts to win Renée Vivien (Aimée de Lagres) back from Hélène van Zuylen (Countess de Talliard), a dynamic which Marion (Lucie Delarue-Mardrus) observes from afar, as an asexual outsider. In her memoirs, Lucie writes that she had eventually, but not immediately, settled into a similar role 'of the sexless angel' (insexué de l'ange) within Natalie's circle, seemingly referring to her overcoming her destructive love affair with Natalie in 1902-1903, following her recovery from which the two became long-term and strictly platonic friends.
As her collection of poetry concerning the affair was never published during her lifetime, the novel is (save for her memoir, which glosses over the emotional fallout of the affair entirely) her only living and authorized account of the relationship between the two. Natalie would later publish the collection following Lucie's death, revealing that her initial entanglement with the social circle of Natalie, Renée, and Hélène had been indeed not so sexless, angelic, nor emotionally agnostic.