Renée Vivien, Sonnet, from Évocations, 1903 “[Sonnet] it’s a highly reveal

Renée Vivien, Sonnet, from Évocations, 1903 “[Sonnet] it’s a highly revealing character study of Natalie [Clifford Barney] and a lucid description of her “être double”—the double being inherent in this child of witches and saints. To Pauline [Renée Vivien], Natalie encompassed the natures of both Hamlet and Ophelia. She is at once female and male; soft and hard; light and dark; joyous and tragic. By embodying such disparate but alluring qualities, she escapes definition or understanding, becoming a never-ending journey into the unknowable. She is inscrutable, unsolvable, a mystery. She doesn’t just attract, she attracts doubly. Indeed, Sonnet goes a long way toward illuminating the compelling allure Natalie had to so many.” — Suzanne Rodríguez, from Wild Heart: A Life, Natalie Clifford Barney and the Decadence of Literary Paris -- source link

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