Helen and Desire

Helen and Desire, the best known and finest of Trocchi'serotic novels, is a highly compelling examination of sexuality. Writtenfrom the perspective of its eponymous heroine, Helen Smith, it followsthe fortunes of this lady as she uses her alluring charms to take herthrough life. Inevitably she is also abused along the way by the menwho cannot resist the appeal of sex incarnate and so Helen's existencefluctuates from one of liberation to one of imprisonment. Beginning as an adolescent loner in an Australian village, thefree-thinking Helen, bored by the repressed and restrictive communitythat she was brought up in, escapes from this small-minded parochialismand begins her travels. The action moves from Australia to Singapore toIndia to France and finally to Algeria, from where, held captive as acaptive prisoner in her Arab tent, she is writing this book. What allows Helen and Desire to transcend the genre oferotic fiction is the way in which Trocchi parodies traditional eroticalinguistically. He also uses the book as a vehicle for examiningexistentialism, power and desire. Originally published under the pseudonym of Frances Lengel, Helen and Desirehas long been out of print in Britain. This new edition, with itsspecially commissioned introduction by Edwin Morgan, returns Trocchi'sunderground classic to the shelves of Britain's bookstores. About time,too.