Lauren Fischer made an excellent choice in selecting The Animal as a new Rachilde novel to translate for English readers. Not only can we expand our exposure to her oeuvre, but the plotting and characterization in The Animal is another example of her brilliantly provocative, if oftentimes bizarre, exploration of sexuality and gender. And, as with her other novels, The Animal is replete with the interior psychological angst and alienation that underlies the best French Decadent literature. Eleanor Keane’s foreword is helpful guidance to approaching the novel and its author. She notes how the Decadent movement “reveled in dismantling traditional gender roles and offered new and challenging perspectives on concepts of sexual dissidence, transgression, and pleasure.” As a result, it “offered Rachilde a valuable outlet for her creative potential and subversive imagination”. 1 Indeed, both the author - and the Decadent Movement in general - aimed to challenge traditional social a...