Even though this subject, formerly considered illicit, has now been amply treated and even exploited by literature in our time, thus acquiring a sort of legitimacy, it would nonetheless appear that Alexis’s intimate problem is hardly less anguishing or secret today than it was formerly, nor would it appear that the relative ease (so different from true freedom) wdth which this subject is discussed in certain tightly restricted circles has done anything more than create in the public at large an increased misunderstanding or wariness. It is enough to look around attentively to perceive that the drama of Alexis and Monique continues to be lived out and doubtless will go on being lived out so long as the world of sexual realities remains shackled with prohibitions, perhaps the most dangerous of which are those of language, which bristles with obstacles most people easily avoid or work their way around but upon which the scrupulous and the pure in heart are almost inevitably impaled. Morals, whatever one may say, have changed too little for the central subject of this novel to have become very outdated.