Peyrefitte clearly valued the commercial success of his books far more than he cared about their quality. An anonymous critic in the magazine L'Express commented in 1968, "In the days when he wrote Les Amitiés Particulières, he had something to say. He now has only something to sell." The novelist Philippe Sollers described Peyrefitte as "that pig who rolls in his own muck."

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"I have been reproached with liking 'to stir up shit,'" Peyrefitte declared in his own defense; "I'm sorry, but this muck exists, it impregnates our society. . . . I attack only imposters, hypocrites, worthless literary or political celebrities and destroyers of our society."

In everything he said or wrote, Peyrefitte insisted, "I try to advance an accursed cause that is dear to me: homosexuality. . . . I'm not a lover of sordid gossip. I am defending a cause."

Peyrefitte was certainly no radical gay liberationist, but he did back André Baudry and his "" review, Arcadie (published 1954-1982); indeed, it was Peyrefitte who named the periodical. He also financed a gay nightclub, Le Colony, and Paris's first gay sex bar, Le Bronx, both of which opened on the Rue Sainte-Anne in late 1973.

Peyrefitte reveled in the fame and wealth that success brought him. "Money is the real aristocracy," he declared. "It permits one to distinguish oneself from others (is that not what everyone wants?), to indulge in a certain luxury, to fill one's life with beautiful things."

His political views were deeply conservative: "I have a profound respect for order. . . . I hate all revolutionary movements. . . . I am too bourgeois . . . to approve of . . . the enemies of the bourgeoisie." In his last years, he came out in open support of the extreme right-wing politician Jean-Marie Le Pen and his xenophobic and party, the National Front.

Peyrefitte died on November 5, 2000, in Paris, after a long battle with Parkinson's disease.

Hervé Chevaux wrote after Peyrefitte's death that "the tragedy of Roger Peyrefitte was to have had an upper-class upbringing, to have been programmed for a brilliant career and to have failed because he was too obviously homosexual." Instead of challenging the society that scorned him, Chevaux added, Peyrefitte played the role of the superficial homosexual and as a result prostituted his literary talent.

France, the second largest nation in Western Europe, has a rich, if markedly ambivalent, relationship to glbtq people and cultures.

The contributions of gay men and lesbians to twentieth-century French literature have been closely intertwined with the course of mainstream literature.

One of the world's most iconic cities and an influential hub of Western culture, Paris is also a major international glbtq center.

Historically, the Roman Catholic Church may be the institution most responsible for the suffering of individuals involved in same-sex sexual relationships.

One of the most fascinating men of all times, Alexander the Great was not only a great soldier and conqueror, he was also renowned for his love of Hephaestion.

André Baudry, as leader of the French homophile movement from the early 1950s into the 1980s, was the principal spokesman for homosexuals in France before the rise of gay liberation in the 1970s.

An outspoken homosexual, Jean Cocteau was a prolific poet, novelist, critic, essayist, artist, and filmmaker.

Actress and cabaret performer Marlene Dietrich scandalized society almost as much by wearing trousers in public as by her numerous love affairs with both men and women.

The homosexuality of Frederick the Great of Prussia was an open secret during his reign, yet some historians have attempted to deny it or to diminish its significance.

André Gide, one of the premier French writers of the twentieth century, reflected his homosexuality in many of his numerous works.

Marcel Proust is the author of A la recherche du temps perdu, one of the major achievements of Modernism and a great gay novel.