Pierre Louÿs

Louÿs' refined evocations, not to say re-inventions, of the society of Hellenistic Greece proved extremely popular in both France and the English speaking world, especially due to the somewhat risque nature of such works as Aphrodite (1896) and Les Chansons de Bilitis (1894). He lived his entire life in Paris, travelling occasionally around the Mediterranean coast where so many of his works of art were set. He had close friends among the writers of his day but otherwise kept among himself rather apart from literary cliques except for that of Mallarme.