A Baedeker of Decadence; Charting a Literary Fashion, 1884–1927

by George C. Schoolfield

• ISBN13: 9780300047141
• ISBN10: 0300047142
• Format: Trade Book
• Copyright: 2003-12-11
• Publisher: Yale University Press

Summary

During the final decades of the nineteenth century, a common mind-set emerged among many intellectuals--"la decadence." Many novels and novellas of the period were populated with protagonists who were fragile, refined, self-absorbed, and preoccupied with a trivially exquisite aesthetic. A Baedeker of Decadence presents thirty-two international works of literary decadence written between 1884 and 1927. George C. Schoolfield, a world authority on the decadent novel, offers an entertaining and wide-ranging commentary on this highly significant literary and cultural phenomenon. Schoolfield tracks down the symptoms of decadence in narrative works written in more than a dozen languages, providing synopses and passages in English translation to give a sense of each author's style and tone. Schoolfield throws new light on the close intellectual kinship of authors from August Strindberg to Bram Stoker to Thomas Mann, and on the ingredients, themes, motifs, and preconceptions that characterized decadent literature.

Author Biography

George C. Schoolfield is professor emeritus of German and Scandinavian literature, Yale University.

Table of Contents

Baedekers	ix
Preface	xiii
France: Joris-Karl Huysmans	1	(15)
Ireland: George Moore	16	(13)
Italy: Gabriele D'Annunzio	29	(14)
Sweden: August Strindberg	43	(15)
England: Oscar Wilde	58	(13)
Holland: Louis Couperus	71	(14)
Norway: Arne Garborg	85	(15)
Belgium: Georges Rodenbach	100	(17)
Poland/Prussia: Stanislaw Przybyszewski	117	(15)
Finland: Karl August Tavaststjerna	132	(15)
Ireland: Edith Oenone Somerville and Violet Martin Ross	147	(17)
Austria: Leopold von Andrian, Rainer Maria Rilke	164	(18)
Poland/Prussia: Stanislaw Przybyszewski	182	(16)
Wales: Arthur Machen	198	(17)
England: Bram Stoker	215	(18)
Portugal: Jose Maria Eca de Queiros	233	(14)
Spain: Ramon Maria del Valle-Inclan	247	(20)
Germany: Thomas Mann	267	(19)
Sweden: Oscar Levertin, Gustaf af Geijerstam, Hjalmar Soderberg, Kjell Stromberg	286	(19)
Denmark: Herman Bang	305	(22)
Australia: Henry Handel Richardson	327	(29)
The United States: James Gibbons Huneker	356	(17)
Iceland: Halldor Kiljan Laxness	373	(28)
Bibliography	401	(8)
Index	409