Aesthetes and Decadents of the 1890s An Anthology of British Poetry and Prose

by Beckson, Karl

• ISBN13: 9780897330442
• ISBN10: 0897330447
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-08-30
• Publisher: INDEPENDENT PUB GROUP

Summary

In his introduction to this now classic anthology, Karl Beckson traces the development of the Decadent or Aesthetic movement, illuminating the selected work of such as Wilde, Yeats, Symons, and Beerbohm that follows.

Author Biography

Karl Beckson wass editor or co-editor of three previous books on leading figures of the 1890's, most recently Max and Will: Max Beerbohm and William Rothenstein, their Friendship and Letters. Professor of English at Brooklyn College, CUNY, he took his BA at Arizona and his PhD at Columbia. He died in 2008.

Table of Contents

Introduction	xxi
John Barlas
Oblivion	1	(1)
The Memphian Temple	1	(1)
The Dancing girl	2	(1)
Beauty's Anadems	3	(1)
The Cat-Lady	3	(1)
Terrible Love	4	(1)
My Lady's Bath	4	(2)
Aubrey Beardsley
The Ballad of a Barber	6	(3)
The Story of Venus and Tannhauser [with illustrations]	9	(38)
Max Beerbohm
A Defence of Cosmetics	47	(16)
A Letter to the Editor	63	(3)
Diminuendo	66	(8)
Olive Custance (Lady Alfred Douglas)
Peacocks: A Mood	74	(1)
The Masquerade	75	(1)
Hyacinthus	75	(1)
The White Statue	76	(1)
Statues	77	(1)
Candle-Light	78	(1)
Lord Alfred Douglas
Apologia	79	(1)
Two Loves	80	(2)
Impression De Nuit	82	(1)
Rejected	83	(2)
Ode to My Soul	85	(1)
The Dead Poet	85	(2)
Ernest Dowson
Nuns of the Perpetual Adoration	87	(1)
Non Sum Qualis Eram Bonae Sub Regno Cynare	88	(1)
O Mors! Quam Amara Est Memoria...	89	(1)
Villanelle of Sunset	90	(1)
Extreme Unction	91	(1)
Exile	92	(1)
Benedictio Domini	93	(1)
Spleen	94	(1)
A Last Word	94	(2)
Michael Field
From Baudelaire	96	(1)
The Poet	96	(1)
A Dance of Death	97	(3)
La Gioconda	100	(1)
A Dying Viper	100	(1)
John Gray
From Silverpoints	101	(9)
On a Picture	102	(1)
Poem	102	(1)
A Crucifix	103	(1)
Parsifal Imitated from the French of Paul Verlaine	104	(1)
Femmes Damnees	104	(1)
The Barber	105	(1)
Le Voyage a Cythere	106	(2)
Mishka	108	(2)
Lionel Johnson
The Cultured Faun	110	(3)
The Church of a Dream	113	(1)
Mystic and Cavalier	114	(1)
To a Passionist	115	(1)
In Honorem Doriani Creatorisque Eius	116	(2)
The Destroyer of a Soul	118	(1)
The Dark Angel	118	(2)
Nihilism	120	(1)
A Decadent's Lyric	121	(1)
Richard Le Gallienne
From English Poems	122	(6)
To the Reader	122	(1)
The Decadent to His Soul	123	(2)
Beauty Accurst	125	(1)
Sunset in the City	126	(1)
A Ballad of London	127	(1)
The Boom in Yellow	128	(6)
Arthur Symons
The Decadent Movement in Literature	134	(17)
Emmy	151	(1)
Maquillage	152	(1)
Morbidezza	152	(1)
Prologue: Before the Curtain	153	(1)
Prologue: In the Stalls	154	(1)
To a Dancer	154	(1)
La Melinite: Moulin Rouge	155	(1)
Javanese Dancers	156	(1)
By the Pool at the Third Rosses	157	(1)
Hallucination: I	158	(1)
Violet: Prelude	158	(1)
From Stephane Mallarme: Herodiade	159	(2)
Preface to the Second Edition of Silhouettes: Being a Word on Behalf of Patchouli	161	(3)
Preface to the Second Edition of London Nights	164	(3)
Oscar Wilde
The Decay of Lying: An Observation	167	(27)
Solome [with Beardsley's illustrations]	194	(44)
Phrases and Philosophies for the use of the Young	238	(2)
Symphony in Yellow	240	(1)
The Harlot's House	241	(1)
Impression Du Matin	242	(1)
Helas!	242	(1)
The Ballad of Reading Gaol	243	(23)
Theodore Wratislaw
From Caprices	266	(3)
Opoponax	266	(1)
Satiety	267	(1)
Frangipani	267	(1)
Palm Sunday	268	(1)
From Orchids	269	(3)
Orchids	269	(1)
White Lilies	269	(1)
Sonnet Macabre	270	(1)
Hothouse Flowers	270	(2)
William Butler Yeats
The Lake Isle of Innisfree	272	(1)
The White Birds	273	(1)
Rosa Mundi	274	(1)
To the Rose Upon the Rood of Time	274	(1)
O'sullivan Rua to Mary Lavell	275	(1)
The Secret Rose	276	(1)
The Song of Wandering Aengus	277	(1)
Aedh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven	278	(41)
APPENDIX
From Studies in the History of the Renaissance	280	(12)
Walter Pater
From Against the Grain	292	(11)
Joris-Karl Huysmans
From The Green Carnation	303	(13)
Robert Smythe Hichens
The Second Coming of Arthur [a Satire of The Yellow Book]	316	(1)
From Silverpoints	317	(2)
Biographical Notes	319	(7)
Selected Bibliography	326