At the end of the nineteen century, two lovers have to face the worst of separation, death. They are both men, but this is not the story of how difficult it was for them to be together, when the story starts they are a couple and they would be happy if not that Philip is deathly ill, consumption, and day after day he is fading away. Jonathan, who is also the wealthier of the two, decides to bring Philip in a big mansion just outside New Orleans, not in the hope to see him better, but to alleviate his last months; in the isolated place, with only the servants as witnesses, Jonathan and Philip are building memories that will serve to Jonathan to survive losing his lover.

There is a bit of paranormal element in the story, but it’s basically an historical short story. The author devoted enough words to describing the setting, the disposition of the mansion where the lovers are living, with the highlight of the “modern” comforts wealth allow them, like an in-house bathroom.

I like also the shift in power between the two men, something that explain Jonathan’s desperation in losing Philip and his apparently incapacity to go on alone: when the story starts Philip is so ill, that Jonathan seems, and is, the strongest of the two; it’s him who takes care of Philip, like a mother with a son, even if there is always the underlying spark of desire. But before Philip’s illness, it was Philip the master in the couple, Jonathan was his pet; without Philip, Jonathan has no balance, no reason to survive his master.

Of Death and Desire is a nice short story, with enough development to give the reader enough material to imagine what in the short story itself there is no time to tell.

http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/1015882.html