The Dedalus Book of Decadence: Moral Ruins

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...