Across the Acheron
London: Peter Owen, 1987. 1st UK Edition. Octavo, publisher’s black cloth, spine stamped in silver, original illustrated dust jacket.
First UK edition of French feminist writer and theorist Monique Wittig’s fifth and final published novel. A reimagining of Dante’s Divine Comedy, the story follows the protagonist, also named Wittig, as she journeys through Hell and Limbo, led not by Virgil but by a woman named Manastabal, an impartial yet empathetic guide. An oblique response to critiques by Judith Butler that her previous works were "prescriptive" and excluded "any kind of solidarity with heterosexual women," Acheron strips gendered signifiers and rejects separatism while recasting the concept of "lesbian" as fluid yet historically situated. Translated from the original French by David LeVay in collaboration with Margaret Crosland. Originally published in France in 1985 as Virgile, non. Dust jacket designed by Keith Cunningham.US distributor's sticker to title page. Fine in price-clipped dust jacket. Item #10941
$75.00