Dedalus Book of English Decadence: Vile Emperors and Reptiles

Avatars and acolytes Byron, De Quincey, Wilde and more, are here, all at their unwholesome best. English Decadence was not a polite response to French invention, but the hothouse blossoming of long, indigenous researches into the perverse. Like Imperial Rome, England could hardly subdue and rule the globe without becoming corrupt. The Romantics tried rebellion, but amid Victorian industry, terminally-fatigued Decadents concerned themselves with cultivating their addiction to luxury and sensation. This is the most wide-ranging, important collection of English decadent writing ever published.