Download or read book The Dedalus Book of Decadence written by STABLEFORD Brian[Ed] and published by Dedalus. This book was released on 2022-02-14 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Decadence Movement which flourished in the 1890s produced some of Europe's most striking and exotic works of literature The Decadents, convinced that civilization was in a state of terminal decline, refused to rebel as the Romantics had, but set forth instead to cultivate the pleasures of calculated perversity and to seek the artificial paradise of drug-induced hallucination. The Dedalus Book of Decadence looks south to sample the essence of fine French decadent writing. It succeeds in delivering a range of writers either searching vigorously for the thrill of a healthy crime or lamenting their impuissance from a sickly stupor. --Andrew St George in The Independent

Download or read book The Second Dedalus Book of Decadence written by Brian M. Stableford and published by Hippocrene Books. This book was released on 1992 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A black feast with offerings from the major practitioners and their precursors in France and England.

Download or read book The Dedalus Book of Decadence moral Ruins written by Brian M. Stableford and published by Hippocrene Books. This book was released on 1993 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Dedalus Book of Roman Decadence written by Geoffrey Farrington and published by . This book was released on 1994 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume collects the poetry and prose that served as the model and inspiration for so much of fin-de-siecle English and French writing, providing a vivid picture of sexual excess and debauchery in a cruel and violent society which has never ceased to fascinate the library and scholarly imagination of succeeding generations. The editor, novelist Geoffrey Farrington, provides a general introduction to the literary and political milieux of imperial Rome, and introductory notes to works by such authors as Ovid, Tacitus, Suetonius, and Juvenal. "...concentrates on the outrageous behaviour of the ruling class of the Roman Empire, as described in passages selected from the prose, poetry and history of the period. Their murder plots, sexual deviances, orgies, cruelty and incessant intrigue put our politicians and their peccadillos on a play school level." Time Out

Download or read book Monsieur V nus written by Rachilde and published by Modern Language Association. This book was released on 2015-05-01 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When the rich and well-connected Raoule de Vénérande becomes enamored of Jacques Silvert, a poor young man who makes artificial flowers for a living, she turns him into her mistress and eventually into her wife. Raoule's suitor, a cigar-smoking former hussar officer, becomes an accomplice in the complications that ensue.

Download or read book Torture Garden written by Octave Mirbeau and published by Library of Alexandria. This book was released on 2020-09-28 with total page 219 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One evening some friends were gathered at the home of one of our most celebrated writers. Having dined sumptuously, they were discussing murder—apropos of what, I no longer remember probably apropos of nothing. Only men were present: moralists, poets, philosophers and doctors—thus everyone could speak freely, according to his whim, his hobby or his idiosyncrasies, without fear of suddenly seeing that expression of horror and fear which the least startling idea traces upon the horrified face of a notary. I—say notary, much as I might have said lawyer or porter, not disdainfully, of course, but in order to define the average French mind. With a calmness of spirit as perfect as though he were expressing an opinion upon the merits of the cigar he was smoking, a member of the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences said: “Really—I honestly believe that murder is the greatest human preoccupation, and that all our acts stem from it... “ We awaited the pronouncement of an involved theory, but he remained silent. “Absolutely!” said a Darwinian scientist, “and, my friend, you are voicing one of those eternal truths such as the legendary Monsieur de La Palisse discovered every day: since murder is the very bedrock of our social institutions, and consequently the most imperious necessity of civilized life. If it no longer existed, there would be no governments of any kind, by virtue of the admirable fact that crime in general and murder in particular are not only their excuse, but their only reason for being. We should then live in complete anarchy, which is inconceivable. So, instead of seeking to eliminate murder, it is imperative that it be cultivated with intelligence and perseverance. I know no better culture medium than law.” Someone protested. “Here, here!” asked the savant, “aren't we alone, and speaking frankly?” “Please!” said the host, “let us profit thoroughly by the only occasion when we are free to express our personal ideas, for both I, in my books, and you in your turn, may present only lies to the public.” The scientist settled himself once more among the cushions of his armchair, stretched his legs, which were numb from being crossed too long and, his head thrown back, his arms hanging and his stomach soothed by good digestion, puffed smoke−rings at the ceiling: “Besides,” he continued, “murder is largely self−propagating. Actually, it is not the result of this or that passion, nor is it a pathological form of degeneracy. It is a vital instinct which is in us all—which is in all organized beings and dominates them, just as the genetic instinct. And most of the time it is especially true that these two instincts fuse so well, and are so totally interchangeable, that in some way or other they form a single and identical instinct, so that we no longer may tell which of the two urges us to give life, and which to take it—which is murder, and which love. I have been the confidant of an honorable assassin who killed women, not to rob them, but to ravish them. His trick was to manage things so that his sexual climax coincided exactly with the death−spasm of the woman: 'At those moments,' he told me, 'I imagined I was a God, creating a world!”

Download or read book L cio s Confession written by Mário de Sá-Carneiro and published by . This book was released on 1993 with total page 134 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When in 1916, Mario de Sa-Carneiro committed suicide in Paris at the age of 26, he left behind him an extraordinary body of work, which dealt obsessively with the problems of identity, madness and solitude. Lucio's Confession is the first of his novels to be translated into English. A brilliant and remarkable short novel of great eroticism and enigmatic beauty Lucio's Confession is set in the fin de siecle artist circles of Paris and Lisbon. It deals with the friendship of two young Portuguese poets, Lucio and Ricardo de Loureiro, and their search for identity through love. When the bachelor Ricardo returns to Lisbon, to everyone's surprise he is accompanied by a wife. She, Marta, seems the perfect partner, and establishes an immediate rapport with his close friend Lucio on the latter's return from Paris. Soon they become lovers. Despite the passionate nature of their relationship, Lucio suspects that Marta is sharing her favours with Ricardo's other close friends. Something is not quite right. Where did this mysterious woman meet Ricardo, and, indeed who is she? Why does she never speak of her past and why is Ricardo conniving at her infidelity? Lucio's attempts to unravel this mystery have tragic and terrible consequences.

Download or read book The Decadent Traveller written by Medlar Lucan and published by Dedalus Concept Books. This book was released on 2000 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the same style as The Decadent Cookbook a nd The Decadent Gardener, this book sees the hedonists Medla r Lucan and Durian Gray laying bare the transgressive nature of another bourgeois passion - travel. '

Download or read book French Decadent Tales written by Stephen Romer and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2013-05-09 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'He had become the dandy of the unpredictable.' A quest for new sensations, and an avowed desire to shock possessed the Decadent writers of fin-de-siècle Paris. The years 1880-1900 saw an extraordinary, hothouse flowering of talent, that produced some of the most exotic, stylized, and cerebral literature in the French language. While 'Decadence' was a European movement, its epicentre was the French capital. On the eve of Freud's early discoveries, writers such as Gourmont, Lorrain, Maupassant, Mirbeau, Richepin, Schwob, and Villiers engaged in a species of wild analysis of their own, perfecting the art of short fiction as they did so. Death and Eros haunt these pages, and a polymorphous perversity by turns hilarious and horrifying. Their stories teem with addicts, maniacs, and murderers as they strive to outdo each other. This newly translated selection brings together the very best writing of the period, from lesser known figures as well as famous names. Provocative and unsettling, these extraordinary, corrosive little tales continue to cast a cold eye on the modern world. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

Download or read book The Dedalus Book of German Decadence written by Raymond Furness and published by Hippocrene Books. This book was released on 1994 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Dedalus Book of Russian Decadence written by Kirsten Lodge and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Including writings by the well-known authors Valery Briusov, Leonid Andreyev, Fedor Sologub and Zinaida Gippius, this collection explores the darkest depths of the unconscious, which lead their characters to sadism, masochism, rape, murder and suicide.

Download or read book The Green Face written by Gustav Meytink and published by Dedalus Ebooks. This book was released on 2018-02-05 with total page 213 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Of the volumes available to the English public, The Green Face, first published in 1916, is the most enjoyable. In an Amsterdam that very much resembles the Prague of The Golem, a stranger, Hauberisser, enters by chance a magician's shop. The name on the shop, he believes, is Chidher Green; inside, among several strange customers, he hears an old man, who says his name is Green, explain that, like the Wandering Jew, he has been on earth 'ever since the moon has been circling the heaven.' When Hauberisser catches sight of the old man's face, it makes him sick with horror. The face haunts him. The rest of the novel chronicles Hauberisser's quest for the elusive and horrible old man." Alberto Manguel in The Observer This translation of The Green Face evokes a brooding, pre-first world war Amsterdam of ghettos, refugees and religious cults. The novel can be be read on many levels, something which no doubt contributed to its longevity. Eric Hidrew in The Leeds Guide Gustav Meyrink's most mystical novel yet. First published in 1916 to critical and commercial acclaim, the book is set in the near future of post-war Amsterdam, and is an elating vision of apocalypse. A trait of Meyrink's novels, particularly The Green Face, is its depth of meanings, which go beyond one single interpretation. It deals with love, a galaxy of grotesque characters, but it has other hidden significances, like the mystic conception of life. Full of symbols and parables, it's a very complex novel that is difficult to understand, but certainly worth the trouble. DT in Buzz Magazine

Download or read book Senso and Other Stories written by Camillo Boito and published by Hippocrene Books. This book was released on 1993 with total page 207 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Boito's stories combined decadence, the macabre, the demonic and depraved female heroines. They were an immediate and popular success in fin de siecle Italy. Visconti's film of Senso brought Boito's work international recognition. This selection includes his most celebrated novelle, including A Corpse, the bizarre tale of rivalry between an artist and a student of anatomy for the beautiful body of Carlotta, the artist's dead mistress

Download or read book The Marquise de Sade written by Rachilde and published by . This book was released on 1994 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Dedalus Book of French Horror written by Liz Heron and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This anthology provides a representative selection of a century of French horror writing by such authors as Petrus Borel, Theophile Gautier, Gerard de Nerval, Charles Nodier, Guy de Maupassant, Charles Baudelaire, and J.K. Huysmans, most appearing for the first time in English. It traces the full development of a genre that initially appeared in the aftermath of the French Revolution, and has been used to explore the most terrifying aspects of science and social life.

Download or read book The Decadent Handbook written by Rowan Pelling and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 50 decadent courtiers contribute essays, stories, poems, reminiscences, and advice on decadent themes in an anti-lifestyle guide for the modern libertine. Readers can transform the spirit of the age, or failing that, ignore it altogether. Featuring contributions by the bad, dangerous and eccentric free spirits of contemporary society have chosen to be remunerated with Absinthe. Decadence here means a kind of colourfully reckless nonconformism. Nick Groom's essay on Decadent Outcasts, in which he demonstrates how the image of the decadent poet has been appropriated by the modern rock star, is not to your taste, then there is always Louise Welsh planning her own funeral to savour and enjoy - or Mick Brown's analysis of the film Performance, William Napier's guide to Roman Decadence in which he relates that the Emperor Heliogabulus's favourite foods were 'flamingos' brains and the head of parakeets', or Nicholas Royles noirish short story 'The Child', about a man sucked into a Mancunian underworld of cinephiles, sex parties and bent coppers. Maria Alvarez even suggest sthat decadence may turn out to be a little dull. In the end, she says, it becomes 'a state of aestheticised satiety.'

Download or read book Decadence and Literature written by Jane Desmarais and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2019-08-22 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Decadence and Literature explains how the concept of decadence developed since Roman times into a major cultural trope with broad explanatory power. No longer just a term of opprobrium for mannered art or immoral behaviour, decadence today describes complex cultural and social responses to modernity in all its forms. From the Roman emperor's indulgence in luxurious excess as both personal vice and political control, to the Enlightenment libertine's rational pursuit of hedonism, to the nineteenth-century dandy's simultaneous delight and distaste with modern urban life, decadence has emerged as a way of taking cultural stock of major social changes. These changes include the role of women in forms of artistic expression and social participation formerly reserved for men, as well as the increasing acceptance of LGBTQ+ relationships, a development with a direct relationship to decadence. Today, decadence seems more important than ever to an informed understanding of contemporary anxieties and uncertainties.