Full Description
'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.
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Contents
JULES BARBEY D'AUREVILLY (1808-89) ; Don Juan's Crowning Love Affair ; LEON BLOY (1846-1917) ; A Dentist Terribly Punished ; The Last Bake ; The Lucky Sixpence ; GUSTAVE GEFFROY (1855-1926) ; The Statue ; REMY DE GOURMONT (1858-1915) ; Danaette ; Don Juan's Secret ; The Faun ; On the Threshold ; JULES LAFORGUE (1860-87) ; Perseus and Andromeda ; JEAN LORRAIN (1895-1906) ; An Unidentified Crime ; The Man with the Bracelet ; The Student's Tale ; The Man Who Loved Consumptives ; PIERRE LOUYS (1870-1925) ; A Case without Precedent ; GUY DE MAUPASSANT (1850-93) ; At the Death-Bed ; The Night ; A Walk ; The Tresses ; CATULLE MENDES (1841-1909) ; What the Shadow Demands ; GUSTAVE MIRBEAU (1848-1927) ; The Bath ; The First Emotion ; The Little Summer-House ; On a Cure ; JEAN RICHEPIN (1849-1926) ; Constant Guignard ; Deshoulieres ; Pft! Pft! ; GEORGE RODENBACH (1855-98) ; The Time ; MARCEL SCHWOB (1867-1905) ; The Brothel ; The Sans-Gueule ; 52 and 53 Orfila ; Lucretius, Poet ; Paolo Uccello, Painter ; VILLIERS DE L'ISLE ADAM (1838-89) ; Sentimentalism ; The Presentiment ; The Desire to be a Man
