Chasing the Dream

This is the first English translation of Chasing the Dream, Liane de Pougy’s first novel, published in 1898 when she was 29. It is the story of a courtesan in search of true love which repeatedly proves ungraspable - insaisissable.

Josiane de Valneige is young, beautiful and rich. She is also exhausted, depressed and despairing. Although scores of wealthy Parisians have been her lovers, she has loved none in return. And despite Josiane’s fame as one of the fin de siècle’s grandes horizontales, fêted in every gossip column, the journey to success has revealed a flaw in her character: she has a heart. Her real self is never engaged. It is not enough to be universally loved. She needs, she yearns, to give her heart.

'Pougy's debut novel, Chasing the Dream was published in 1898. Admirably pragmatic, Anderson describes it as " a kind of half-time report on her career to date". It opens with the heroine Josiane horizontal on a chaise longue in her negligee. Suddenly a stranger arrives - her old lover, Jean, who declares his undying love, then politely enquires what she has been up to. It is a long story, so Josiane proposes a correspondence in which she will relate the details. The letters that follow chart Josiane's ascent through the Parisian demimonde via assorted aristocrats, politicians and businessmen.'

Miranda France in The Times Literary Supplement