Set in fin de siècle Paris, its concerns are the magnetic attraction and passionate though ultimately tragic affair between a young Frenchman named Camille Des Grieux and the Hungarian pianist René Teleny.
Its lush and literate, though variable, prose style and the relative complexity and depth of character and plot development share as much with the aesthetic fiction of the period as with its typical pornography.
Hirsch defied the strict instructions not to open the package while it was in his care, and claims that it was written in several different hands, which lends further support to his supposition that it was authored in "round robin" style by a small group of Wilde's intimate associates.
[1] Smithers and Nichols were aligned with William Lazenby, Edward Avery, and Charles Carrington, in a small and tightly interwoven group of late Victorian publishers heavily involved in the production and distribution of pornography in London and Paris.
Lisa Sigel claims that unlike most pornographers, who were eager to preserve their anonymity for reasons of respectability and safety, Smithers "embrace[d] public scrutiny" and managed to earn some renown for encouraging and orchestrating the collaboration of Wilde and Beardsley on Salome.
[5] Smithers promoted it in an advertisement, sent to a select group of subscribers, as "undoubtedly, the most powerful and most cleverly written erotic Romance which has appeared in the English language during recent years," authored by "a man of great imagination…[who] has conceived a thrilling story."
And: "It is a most extraordinary story of passion, and while dealing with scenes which surpass in freedom the wildest license, the culture of its author’s style adds an additional piquancy and spice to the narration".
A comic book adaptation by Jon Macy entitled Teleny and Camille, published by Northwest Press in 2010, won the 2010 Lambda Literary Award for Gay Erotica.