According to Rachilde herself, the real vice she exposed was not those activities but Love. Obsession is common thread throughout her oeuvre, but Rachilde also dealt with characters whose entire lives are formed or constrained by other overpowering psychological conditions such as delirium or terror. Often those conditions were tied into sexuality or gender conflicts. The core dynamic of Rachilde's fiction is frequently gender reversal. Either at the outset or as an outcome of the story line there is a biologically female character who seems more culturally masculine and a biologically male character who seems more culturally feminine. There is variation in degree and manifestation, but it is important time and time again. Later in life, as she became less prolific, her writing took on a much more reflective and auto-biographical quality. This trend began around the time of World War I and became especially notable after the 1935 death of her husband Alfred Vallette. Novels Rachilde's 1884 novel Monsieur Venus is usually regarded as her break-through work. In it, she uses a fantastical erotic plot to reverse gender roles, explore the nature of sexual desire, and question the nature of interpersonal power. She makes clear a preference for the ideal and suggests that even in erotic matters there can be power in artifice and illusion. In his preface to the 1889 edition, Maurice Barrès referred to this novel as depraved, perverse, and nasty. He called it a "sensual and mystical frenzy," and the shocking and mysterious, "dream of a virgin." Her novels continued to explore gender identity the power structure of relationships through sexual experimentation in a shocking and extreme way that was typical of the Decadent Movement. The Juggler (1900) is often considered to be the most complete and refined Rachilde novel to deal with these themes. In it she uses eroticism and violent imagery to both subvert traditional sex roles and at the same time satirizing the "new woman," the feminist ideal of her day. The two novels published as Jean de Chilra provide an interesting interlude, different in some key ways from the Rachilde-credited novels, despite sharing the themes of aggressive sexual deviance, obsession, and confusion between reality and illusion. The main character of La Princesse des ténèbres (1895) is a weak and victimized woman. The main character of L’Heure sexuelle (1898) is a man who may be conflicted, but is not typically effeminate. Both novels