Published in the same year as Barnes’ Ladies Almanack, this novel is radically different both in its avoidance of any sexual content and in its insistence that ‘inversion’ in women was a distinct and all-encompassing category of being. While its redemptive power is questionable, depicting its heroine as mannish and tragic, the work undoubtedly raised the cultural consciousness of non-heterosexual lives. Ironically, this was only amplified by campaigns against it; having initially withdrawn the novel under governmental and media pressure, Jonathan Cape clumsily attempted to have the edition here printed in Paris and reimported, ultimately leading to a successful prosecution.