In the second half of the nineteenth century, a number of writers traveled to Lesbos, “the isle of bliss.” This Edenic imagery was, nevertheless, repeatedly undermined by the shocking reputation of Sappho’s poetry. This sensual and ambiguous land would provide the setting for countless novels, short stories, and poems that enhanced its reputation as an island of love and a welcoming home for the Sapphic cult.

Nevertheless, women travelers in fin-de-siècle fiction rarely strayed far from familiar shores. They seem to have preferred the calmer waters of the rivers and streams around Paris to faraway oceans. Novels and society gossip columns alike began to focus more and more on women who established their own Lesbos without ever leaving Paris.

The reality in Paris was no doubt less spectacular than some of the lurid depictions offered in the wildly fantastic tales penned by men. It also enabled women who preferred to express their sexuality with other women to group together in public or semi-public spaces within the city, such as women’s clubs and cafes or cabarets around Montmartre.